Syria backs Barak's new peace drive
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Your support makes all the difference.SYRIA IS ready to match peace moves by Israel's new Prime Minister step by step, a Foreign Ministry official has said in response to Ehud Barak's call on Tuesday for peace with Syria. "Syria shares with Israel's Prime Minister Barak the same wish to put an end to wars and establish comprehensive peace in the region," the official said.
Syria's positive response came as Mr Barak embarked on a round of meetings with Arab leaders. He is to see President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in Cairo tomorrow and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, two days later. Both will press him to implement at once the Wye accord signed last year in the United States by Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister, but never implemented.
The agreement requires Israel to withdraw from 13.1 per cent of the West Bank, release prisoners and open a safe passage between the autonomous Palestinian enclaves in Gaza and the West Bank. Mr Barak has made clear that he wants to drop Wye and fold the agreement into negotiations on final status issues such as Jerusalem, settlements and refugees.
Both Mr Arafat and Mr Barak will be vying for support from President Bill Clinton, with whom Mr Netanyahu was on bad terms. The new Israeli Prime Minister will meet Mr Clinton later this month in Washington, where the US is expected to press Israel to go ahead with the promised withdrawal from the West Bank.
The Palestinians are nervous that Israel will give priority to its negotiations with Syria, but Mr Barak moved to reassure them at his swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.
"I know not only my own people's suffering, but I am also aware of the suffering of the Palestinian people," he said. But he was more specific about Syria, repeating his promise "to end the IDF [Israeli army] presence in Lebanon within a year, to deploy the IDF along the border and bring our boys home".
To do this Israel will have to withdraw from the Golan Heights and hold a referendum on any peace agreement with Syria.
Mr Arafat is worried that Mr Barak will not have the political backing in Israel to give up the Golan and withdraw from parts of the West Bank at the same time. The Palestinian leader has reiterated that "the Palestinian track is the central issue of the entire Arab nation".
Lebanon also appears to have misgivings. Beirut criticised Mr Barak yesterday, saying he had failed to commit himself to unconditional withdrawal from south Lebanon and restart peace talks where they left off.
Israeli settlers on the West Bank are expected to test Mr Barak's resolve soon by establishing new settlements. Palestinians see this as a critical test of the new administration.
Haim Ramon, the new minister for Jerusalem affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, says it is already too late to stop the Jewish settlement at Har Homa, south of Jerusalem, but he will oppose building at Ras al-Amud, in the heart of a Palestinian district in the city.
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