Golan can wait, but Tripoli can't

Sept.6, 2008

Golan can wait, but Tripoli can't


SYRIAN President Bashar Al Assad knows well that there is little sense in hoping for any breakthrough for peace with Israel before a new government is installed in the Jewish state and a new administration replaces that of George W Bush in Washington. However, that has not stopped him from continuing indirect talks with Israel and handing proposals for peace to Turkish mediators. He is seeking American participation before entering direct talks and Washington does not seem to be interested. That is only expected because nothing concrete could be expected to happen before the elections in the US and Israel.
At the same time his calculated moves have taken him far ahead in ending his country's alienation with the Europeans as evidenced in his July visit to Paris and this week's presence in Damascus of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the rotating European Union presidency, for a four-way summit that included Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. who chairs the Gulf Co-operation Council, and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on stability and peace in the Middle East.
As Assad noted at the summit on Thursday, the future of peace negotiations rests on who becomes prime minister in Israel to replace scandal-hit Ehud Olmert and whether the new leader will be committed to pursuing peace with Syria. The postponement of a fifth round of indirect talks between Syria and Israel as a result of the resignation of the chief Israeli negotiator is an example of the uncertainties clouding the negotiations.
The call from Damascus on Israel to agree to return the Golan Heights to Syria and thus clear the way for an agreement has fallen on deaf ears, because there is no such idea in Israel as giving up the strategic plateau, which holds the sources of more than 70 per cent of the Jewish state's water needs. The summit recommendations are unlikely to produce any real movement for peace and stability in the Middle East, the simple reason being that Israel wants to impose its will and interests its neighbours.
More pressing than the Golan at this juncture in time appears to be the situation in northern Lebanon. Assad on Thursday accused external forces of stirring up trouble in northern Lebanon just across the border from Syria. More than 20 people have been killed in Tripoli in the last three months in sectarian fighting linked to Lebanon's broader political troubles. A separate bomb attack in August in the city killed 15 people, including 10 soldiers.
The tensions in Tripoli have clouded Lebanon's return to political stability after Qatar mediated an end to an 18-month power struggle that had paralysed the country. Something needs to be done urgently to check the situation in northern Lebanon from turning worse. Any worsening of the security situation in Lebanon will benefit no one but Israel.