Президент Сирии Башир Ассад проявил готовность начать диалог с Израильем, сказал конгресмен Лантос встртившийся с ним в Дамаске. В течении последних нескольких лет, Ассад высказывался не раз с анти-еврейскими и анти-Израильскими речми, но по мнению директора Израильской военной разведки теперь он себя осознает в полном окружении.
JERUSALEM, April 28 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said Monday that Syria's president has expressed a desire to negotiate with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Lantos, who arrived in Jerusalem after a visit to Damascus, conveyed Bashar Assad's desire to Sharon in a one-on-one meeting in Jerusalem, an Israeli official confirmed.
Lantos then told Channel 1 TV: "He (Assad) asked me to convey to the Israeli prime minister his desire to talk to Israel about various outstanding issues. I discussed this with Mr. Sharon."
Later, in a wider forum, Sharon said he is ready to meet Assad anywhere, any time, providing the talks are direct and there are no other prior conditions.
The last known top-level negotiations between the two countries involved Israel's then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk e-Sharaa in the United States. The talks broke down. In March 2000 President Bill Clinton, reportedly encouraged by Barak, attempted to revive the talks in a summit meeting in Geneva with then-Syrian President Hafez Assad, the incumbent president's father. He failed outright.
The key problem seemed to be the Syrian demand for an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines, when the Syrians had reached the northeastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. Israel maintains that, according to the armistice agreements that ended the first Arab-Israeli war, the boundary line passes 10 meters (11 yards) from the lake and that the Syrian soldiers shouldn't have reached the water.
A senior Israeli diplomatic source noted Monday that at a 1998 meeting of foreign ministers of Mediterranean states in Stuttgart, Germany, then-Foreign Minister Sharon already told e-Sharaa that Israel would be ready for talks without prior conditions.
Assad has made hostile remarks against Israel and Jews in recent years. An Israeli official said he believed the new message was designed to curry favor with the United States.
Israel's chief of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevy-Farkash, noted Friday that in the wake of Iraq's downfall, Assad finds himself with no strategic rear. Iran's readiness to intervene in a conflict is questionable. Iran, which is a Shiite state, did not intervene on behalf of the Iraqi Shiites when Saddam Hussein crushed their rebellion after the first Gulf War in 1991.
