Syria has rejected calls by President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to pursue the 2002 Saudi peace initiative, a plan touted by the Syrian embassy spokesman in London Jihad Makdissi called Israel's recent revival of the initiative "another attempt to bluff and evade peace." Makdissi made his remarks in a letter to leading Syrian blog Syria comment. In his letter, he said that any pan-Arab initiative would not let anyone but Syria negotiate with Israel over the fate of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
"As for the notion of weakening Syria and its allies simply by reviving the Arab peace initiative," the Syrian official wrote, "it is not consistent at all because any Pan Arab initiative will not enable any Arab country to negotiate on the Golan on behalf of Syria because comprehensiveness is the broader political umbrella for all tracks and not the substitution."
"All Israeli leaders negotiated with Syria starting with Shamir, until Olmert (whether directly or indirectly), none of them had a clear vision for peace with Syria or genuine conviction of peace per se, except maybe Rabin" Makdissi went on to say.