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Syria: Accept Arab initiative or we'll resort to violence
Quick! Send Pelosi on the road to peace....) Article appropriately has a picture of her and pencil neck. Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal threatened on Monday evening to return the Golan Heights to Syrian hands "by way of resistance If Israel [rejected] the Arab peace initiative." One can only hope that they would be so stupid. It would be a great excuse to start cleaning out the western part of the ME. Bilal did not elaborate but some analysts raised the possibilities of either a full scale conventional war or a terror campaign in the Golan as one of the means to undertake a mukawama (resistance in Arabic). After saying that "Syria wishes to revive the peace process with Israel with the help of US and Russian mediators," Bilal immediately added a threat, saying that "If Israel [rejected] the Arab peace initiative, the only way to get the Golan Heights back would be the way of resistance." Bilal was speaking at a press conference in Damascus, referring to the Arab peace initiative of 2002. Bilal's belligerent remarks follow on the heels of a visit by Syrian-born American businessman, Abe Suleiman, to Jerusalem last week. Suleiman promised the Foreign Affairs and Defense committee of the Knesset that "peace with Syria could be achieved within six months." George Jabour, a Syrian member of parliament, said Suleiman was speaking on his own behalf and was in no way affiliated with the Syrian leadership. "Suleiman has zero credibility in the eyes of Syrians," Jabour said. Bilal echoed Jabour statements in an interview he gave on Syrian TV on Saturday, quoted by SANA (the Syrian Arab News Agency). He said that all the Syrian people stood behind President Bashar Assad's leadership for the achievement of just and comprehensive peace in the region. He defined this "just and comprehensive peace" as the restoration of the "whole occupied Syrian Golan," what remained of the Lebanese territories under occupation, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Bilal also demanded the recognition of the Palestinian refugees right to return to their homeland. ... the kitchen sink, and a pony. While Bilal echoed the tenets of the Arab peace initiative, rejected by Israel wholesale, his demands went beyond the more recent Saudi initiative, which remains vague on the question of the right of return. Jerusalem did not fully accept the Saudi initiative as well, saying only that it contained a basis for further negotiations. During the Second Lebanon War, Syria made peace overtures by agreeing to "unconditional" negotiations with Israel. However, as soon as a ceasefire was achieved and Syria no longer feared possible engagement with the IDF as part of its campaign against Hizbullah, the Syrian leadership denied any willingness for unconditional negotiations.
Posted by: Danking70 2007-04-16 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=185953 |