Israel-Syria talks a historic opportunity — US

The outcome could be the framework for a peace treaty between Israel and Syria, bringing the Jewish state close to completing the circle of peace with its immediate neighbours.

Barak and Shara met in Washington for two days last month. President Bill Clinton and Albright will today start talks at a conference centre in Shepherdstown, West Virginia that will tackle the substance of a dispute going back more than 50 years.

Albright told NBC’s meet the press on Sunday that Barak and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad were clearly serious about peace. But she declined to predict how long it would take.

“This is a hugehistoric opportunity … But because there are so many fateful decisions involved in it, I think it will be a very difficult set of negotiations,” she said. “I am clearly very much seized with the idea that we are doing something that is historic, that the opportunity is there and that these two–President Assad and Prime Minister Barak–are prepared to make the fateful decisions,” she added.

The future of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in the Middle East War of 1967, is expected to be at the top of the agenda.

Barak referred obliquely to territorial concessions on Sunday, saying that agreements come at a price. “I have no doubt these will be tough talks. Agreements come at a price, but you don’t make one at any price,” he told Israel Radio, in a reference to the Golan, where Israel has settled 17,000 Jews alongside 19,000 indigenous Druze Arabs.

Syria demands full Israeli withdrawal, which Barak has so far declined to promise. And the Syrian Government presshas been cautious about the prospects for a breakthrough in Shepherdstown. “The outcome of the first round of talks (in December) does not give us reason to be optimistic and it is premature to predict whether the talks will be a success,” the Syrian official daily Al-Thawra said on Sunday.

“Making progress or suffering a failure is in the hands of the parties in the peace talks– especially Israel, which did not give even a single proof of good intentions. All it offered were words and promises which no serious progress could be built on,” it added.

In exchange for withdrawal, Israel is demanding security arrangements, peace with normal diplomatic relations and access to some of the water resources which the Golan controls.

Even if they agree on who gives what, Israel and Syria then face the possibly contentious task of working out a timetable phasing withdrawal and normalisation.

Albright said she would be in Shepherdstown throughout the talks and Clinton would come in from Washington whenevernecessary. White House aides said Clinton’s schedule was being kept relatively open for the week to enable him to get to Shepherdstown quickly.

“I am prepared to roll up my sleeves and work with them and, more importantly, they are prepared to roll up their sleeves and work on the issues,” she told meet the press. “We have to be very realistic. We don’t know how long it’s going to take. … we will assess where we are at the end of the week and we are just going to be keep working on it. It’s too important not to give it our full attention,” she added. In the talks in Washington, Barak and Shara never negotiated without the presence of a US Official, usually Albright. US officials hope that in Shepherdstown it will be possible for negotiations to occur without such US support.

The format is reminiscent of the Camp David talks between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978, or, less auspiciously, the talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu andPalestinian Leader Yasser Arafat at Wye in Maryland in 1998.