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US in
secret talks with Syria over peace deal with Israel
Saturday January 01, 2011 04:35:19 PM ,
DPA
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Kuwait City: The US has
been in secret contact with Syrian officials in the hopes of
realising a comprehensive Israel-Syrian peace treaty, the Kuwaiti
al-Rai newspaper reported Saturday.
The past few weeks had witnessed an "unprecedented Syrian
cooperation" in the peace process, prompting Washington to talk
with Syrian officials to reach a peace agreement between Syria and
Israel, informed sources told al-Rai.
Sources said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem had sent
positive signals to the US showing that "the Syrians are ready to
re-engage in dialogue with the Israelis to reach peace".
President Barack Obama's administration believes that an
Israeli-Syrian peace agreement will be "a breakthrough in the
peace process as a whole to achieve peace in the Palestinian
territories".
Sources said that Obama adviser Denis Ross told the US
administration that he found "Syria ready to move away from Iran
and reduce relations with Hezbollah and Hamas, and work with the
United States in the fight against terrorism."
The Israelis, for their part, expressed a willingness to return to
Syria the occupied Golan Heights, reach an agreement on water
rights, and normalise relations with Damascus.
Syrian demands the return of the Golan, a strategic plateau
overlooking northern Israel, as a prerequisite for any peace deal
with the Jewish state.
Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 war, and in 1981 parliament
passed a law applying Israeli "laws, jurisdiction and
administration" to the territory, in effect annexing it.
The annexation was not recognised internationally.
Direct Israeli-Syrian peace talks fell apart in 2000, over a
dispute over Syrian access to the Sea of Galilee, as per the de
facto border which existed prior to the 1967 war.
Turkish mediated Israeli-Syrian talks also failed to produce any
breakthrough.
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