Monday, December 10, 2007

Grasping the chance at hand

Dec.10, 2007

Grasping the chance at hand


PARALLEL to the strong signal in Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem's visit to Jordan that bilateral relations are improving, there is an equally strong sign that Damascus is trying to make the best of opportunity available to launch peace talks with Israel.
The visit came ahead of King Abdullah's talks with Turkish and Europen leaders who could play a strong role in regional peacemaking.
It is clear that last month's Annapolish conference offered a good opening between Syria and the US. It is reflected in their proxy tug-of-war in Lebanon, where US-backed and Syrian-supported factions have accepted army chief Michel Suleiman as the choice for president.
European leaders have been in touch with the Syrian leadership to help solve the stand-off and Damascus has responding positively, as is indicated in the compromise involving Suleiman.
The US has scaled down its charges that Syria has not been "doing enough" to prevent cross-border infiltrations into Iraq by militants seeking to wage war on the US forces ithere.
The overall impression that we get from the post-Annapolis scenario is that Syria is slowly moving to a point where it would not be left out of the overall peace process.
Syria has clearly stated that it is ready to resume negotiations, but Israeli leaders have been cautious in their public comments, mainly because of internal political considerations and in view of the deep rift the US-Syrian relationship. However, some of them have affirmed that it would be easier to make peace with Syria than with the Palestinians in view of the relatively less complex issues that need to be sorted out with the Syrians.
At the same time, it would be unrealistic to expect an immediate resumption of intense Syrian-Israeli peace talks because of the ground that needs to be covered. Syria has to build mutual confidence with the US first before there could be any hope of renewed peace talks to end the Israeli-Syrian conflict.
Russia is hosting a Annapolis follow-up meeting next year to try to revive Syrian-Israeli peacemaking. That could indeed offer the breakthrough for peace between Syria and Israel. The impression the world has is that Damascus would not be found wanting in seeking peace. The question is: How far would the Israeli leadership be willing to go in accepting international legitimacy as the basis for a peace agreement with the Syrians?