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Syria ready for peace if Israel is "truthful" |
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October 3, 2000
CAIRO, OCT 2 (UNB/AP) - President Bashar Assad said Monday that Syria is ready to negotiate peace with Israel whenever Israelis are "truthful in their will and intention," but he indicated the Israeli-Palestinian violence only makes resuming the stalled talks more difficult. Assad, looking relaxed and occasionally smiling during his first news conference since assuming the Syrian presidency in July, also said Arabs must work together to end sanctions on Iraq but sidestepped questions on whether Syrian troops should leave Lebanon. The 35-year-old president succeeded his father, Hafez Assad, who died in June after 30 years of autocratic leadership in Syria. Assad referred briefly to the daily clashes in Jerusalem and Palestinian areas that began Thursday after hawkish Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited a site holy to Muslims as Haram Ash-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount. Thus far, 33 people, mainly Palestinians, have been killed. Assad indicated the clashes were complicating more than Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. "What has been going on in Jerusalem in the past few days definitely has an influence on the Syrian track because we cannot separate what is happening in Jerusalem from what happens in the Golan," Assad said in the joint news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Syrian-Israeli talks broke down in January with Syria demanding a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in 1967. Israel insists on waiting to settle borders until it knows what it will gain by returning the Golan. "When the Israelis are truthful in their will and intention to achieve a just peace, there is a possibility for a resumption of talks between Israel and Syria," Assad said. "We are ready for peace at any time, but it is up to the Israelis to make up their minds." Mubarak questioned whether Sharon went to Haram Ash-Sharif, knowing the sensitivity of questions over sovereignty of Jerusalem holy sites, in a deliberate attempt to obstruct the peace process. "What happened between the Israelis and Palestinians is not a normal thing. I think what Sharon did, he created health problems for the peace process now - maybe for personal or other reasons - but it's not right," Mubarak said. Assad repeatedly sidestepped one of the more delicate subjects for Syria - calls for Syria to end its military presence in Lebanon and lessen its considerable political sway over its neighbor now that Israel has withdrawn its forces. Like his father before him, Assad maintains the loyalty of the vast majority of leading Lebanese politicians. Since Hafez Assad's death, some leading Lebanese Christians have called on Syria to withdraw its 30,000 troops. Most recently, Lebanon's largest church - the Maronite Catholic Church - echoed the demand. "We in Syria, as a state, deal with states," Assad said. "Everyone has the right to raise whatever he demands through the state (political system), and not through the media." Assad, whose two-day visit to Egypt was his first trip abroad as president, also said that Arabs need to consider how to bring about an end to the sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. "After 10 years of sanctions we have to review our position," Assad said. The original intent of the sanctions, he said, was "punishing Iraq for the act it committed of invading Kuwait. But now we have found that the result has been punishing the Iraqi people - and as Arabs, we have no interest in this." Mubarak responded when the leaders were asked whether Egypt and Syria were considering resuming flights to Iraq, following the lead of France, Russia, Yemen and Jordan in challenging the U.N. sanctions. The Egyptian leader said that if there was private sector interest in sending a plane, the government would not object. "If you want to send a plane, we will never object," said Mubarak. "We'll do like other countries did, we'll just inform the sanctions committee, that's all." |