Syria rejected Israel’s demand that Damascus cut its ties with Iran and Arab militant groups as a condition for a peace agreement, a state newspaper said on Saturday.
The announcement comes even as Syrian ally Hamas, a sworn foe of the Jewish state, cast doubt on the Israeli government’s ability to even deliver on a peace agreement because of the weakness of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The remarks underline the difficulties facing the negotiations between Israel and Syria, restarted on Wednesday after an eight year hiatus. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had said on Thursday that Syria would have to stop supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and cut ties with Iran if any agreement were to happen.
Saturday’s editorial in Tishrin, which reflects official policy, said that Israel could not lay down conditions ahead of negotiations.
“Damascus does not want preconditions, that would put the cart before the horse ... It does not bargain over its relations with other countries and people,” the editorial stated.
“It goes without saying that impossible conditions cannot facilitate the work of negotiators,” said the editorial, which likened it to “putting stakes in the wheels” of the peace process.
As if to underline Israel’s concerns, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was in Tehran on Saturday, meeting with Iranian officials. While he was careful not to criticize the decision of Syria to restart negotiations, he cast doubt on their chances for success.
“[Israel] is maneuvering and playing with all the [negotiating] tracks — it’s a well known game and besides, Olmert’s weakness will not allow him to take this step,” Mashaal said.
An investigation into Olmert over corruption allegations have raised doubts about his ability to conclude a peace deal with the Palestinians by a year-end target or pursue recently confirmed peace talks with Syria.
Tzachi Hanegbi, a member of Olmert’s Kadima Party and chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense committee in parliament, called on Saturday for an early election in Israel to vote on any peace deal negotiated between Syria and Israel.
Hanegbi said in an interview via telephone that his party did not run on a platform of peace with Syria and said elections would show whether Israelis really wanted a deal or not.
Hanegbi also underlined the absolute necessity of Syria cutting ties with militant groups and Iran.
“It’s understood that Syria wants to have the Golan Heights and Israel wants a total [Syrian] disassociation from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. It’s a red line, to ensure our security ... and to prevent a surprise attack,” he said.
Israel captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war and many Israelis see it as a valuable buffer against attack. Today, the Golan Heights are home to 18,000 Israelis who run thriving wine and tourism industries. Olmert himself vacationed there last month.
A recent poll showed that only 19 percent of Israelis were willing to cede the entire Golan Heights.
Israel and Syria are bitter enemies whose attempts at reaching peace have failed in the past. The last round of talks collapsed in 2000 because of a disagreement over a narrow strip of land along the Sea of Galilee that Israel wanted to keep to preserve its water rights.
The nations have fought three wars, their forces have clashed in Lebanon and more recently, Syria has given support to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the