The United Nations has submitted detailed proposals to Israel and Syria pressing them to revive their peace talks frozen since January 2000, the Financial Times reported yesterday, quoting Western diplomatic sources. It gave no details of the proposals, described by the sources as âvery preciseâ. The daily said the UN had suggested that the negotiations be supervised by several parties, including the United States, Israelâs strongest ally, and France, which has solid relations with Damascus. âIf thereâs a will you could easily go to the negotiating table,â a diplomat familiar with the UN move was quoted as saying. But diplomats also admit to hurdles along the way. Last month, Syrian President Bashar al Assad told his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak he was ready to negotiate with Israel without conditions if the Jewish state did the same. Previous negotiations between then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and the late Syrian president Hafez al Assad, Basharâs father, collapsed in acrimony in January 2000 over Damascusâ demand for the return of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. The Financial Times said Syrian officials were not hopeful that the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would agree to return all of the Golan. But it said Damascus seemed eager to restart a peace process to fend off mounting US pressure.
|