Netanyahu told Assad: I'm ready to discuss Golan withdrawal, if you cut Iran, Hezbollah ties
Through indirect talk mediated by the U.S., the PM was ready in 2010 to discuss Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. The talks were abandoned in 2011, however, with the outbreak of revolt in Syria.
By Barak Ravid |
Oct.12, 2012 | 7:22 PM
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
relayed a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad in January 2011, saying that
he would be ready discuss Syria's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the
Golan Heights, to June 4 1967 lines, on the condition that Syria agree to abandon
its alliance with Iran and Hezbollah.
The indirect talks that were
undertaken with American mediation did not yield results, however, and were
abandoned by Israel
in March 2011 after the extent of the rebellion against the Assad regime became
clear.
Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot
revealed for the first time on Friday morning the existence of secret contacts
between Israel and Syria,
that went on from December 2010 through March 2011. Indirect talks were
undertaken by American envoys Dennis Ross and Fred Hoff, who passed messages
between the two sides.
According to the report in Yediot
Aharanot, Netanayhu agreed to withdraw from the entire Golan
Heights, and return to June 4 1967 lines. According to a source
who was intimately involved in the talks, however, in practice the prime
minister's proposal was slightly different. Netanyahu expressed willingness to
discuss the Syrian demand for a full Israeli withdrawal, but only on the
condition that Assad accept a series of Israeli demands regarding the military
alliance between Syria, Iran
and Hezbollah, as well as Syrian support for Palestinian terror organizations.
The source, who took part in the
talks and asked to remain anonymous as he had agreed to maintain
confidentiality, agreed to recount some of the details of the talks that took
place between Damascus and Jerusalem on the eve of the outbreak of
revolt against the Assad regime.
As early as June 2009, two months
after the establishment of Netanyahu's government, the U.S. began to engage in talks with Israel and Syria over the possibility of
renewing negotiations between the two sides. The person in charge of the Syrian
file was Frederic Hoff, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel, who over the years
had become a diplomat specializing in Syria.
For one and a half years, Hoff
tried to propel the Syrian-Israeli channel. He traveled to Damascus
and Jerusalem
and met with every person who was ever involved in peace talks between the two
states. These included a number of trips to Ankara. He conferred at length with the
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and with the Director General of the
Turkish Foreign Ministry Feridun Sinirlioglu. He heard from the Turkish
officials about their efforts to mediate between President Assad and former
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during the years 2007 and 2008.
Despite this, Hoff's efforts met
with cool responses from Jerusalem and Damascus. Both sides were
entrenched in their positions and presented a fairly hard line. Assad demanded
that negotiations resume from the point at which they stopped during Olmert's
tenure as prime minister, and that future negotiations should be based on the
"six-point document" that he passed to Olmert at the
time.
The document in question was a
six-point score that formed the basis for Syrian demands to draw the border
line in the Golan Heights. Olmert agreed to
the six points, but Netanyahu rejected this outright, claiming that the six
points were completely biased toward the Syrian position, and did not match
Israeli interests.
"That all changed in November
to December 2010," the source said. "The Syrians started to send more
and more signs that they were ready to talk and that they were prepared to
accept some of Israel's
demands."
Following the new sounds from Damascus, Hoff received a significant reinforcement
through the figure of Dennis Ross, then U.S. President Barack Obama's senior Middle East advisor. Hoff, who was more accepted by the
Syrian leadership, and who had their trust, traveled alone to Damascus,
and was accompanied by Ross to meetings in Israel.
Netanyahu initially reacted with
skepticism to the positive signs from Syria,
but he decided, after consulting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak – the only
minister who was in on the secret of the talks – to set up a team to handle the
Syria
issue.
On the team, whose members signed
non-disclosure agreements, were National Security Advisor Uzi Arad, Military
Secretary Yohanan Locker, special envoy Yitzhak Molcho and Brigadier –General
(Reserve) Mike Herzog, who had served in the past as chief of staff for Barak,
and assisted Molcho in the Palestinian issue.
The aim of the talks that Hoff and
Ross conducted with the Israelis was to draft an American document of
principles that would be adopted by both sides, and that would form the basis
for the move to direct and open negotiations. On every trip, the Americans
presented a draft and different proposals to Syrian and Israeli officials, and
tried to reach common ground between the two sides.
The source said that, in exchange
for the resumption of negotiations, the Syrians wanted Israel to promise in advance that they would
withdraw fully from the Golan Heights.
The Syrian demand was similar to the famous pledge that Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin gave to the U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in 1994, according
to which Israel would be
ready to withdraw from the Golan Heights if
Israeli terms were accepted.
Israel,
on the other hand, drew up a long list of demands that did not deal with the
nature of peace between the two countries or with bilateral relations, rather
with the nature of relations between Syria
and Iran,
Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist organizations on the day after the two
countries sign a peace agreement.
Thus the Americans tried to
assemble a document that would combine the demands of both sides, with each
side fulfilling its part, so long as the other side met their demands. What the
Americans, the Syrians and the Israelis did agree on in any case was the
principle of "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."
According to the source, the Syrian proposal was: If we know that we will get territorial compensation – i.e. withdrawal from the Golan Heights – we will be prepared to change orientation in our relations with Israel and Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Israeli thinking
was: If we will be satisfied regarding Iran
and Hezbollah, we will be willing to discuss territorial demands with Syria.
"Netanyahu did not commit to
returning the entire area, but he did not shut the door to the territorial
claims of the Syrians," the source said. "The proposal he suggested
was – if I get what I want, the broad context of which was Iran and Hezbollah, I am prepared
to discuss their territorial demands."
The talks continued from January
through March 2011, when Israel
tried to get serious proof from the Syrians regarding their intentions, the
source said. "The Americans carried out thorough and discreet checks with
the Syrians, and serious indications were received that they were willing to go
in the direction we wanted," the source said.
The talks became ripe for an
agreed-on formula, but as the American envoys continued mediating between the
two sides, the uprising broke out in Syria,
in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia,
Libya and Egypt. According to the source, in
March 2011, when it became clear that what was happening in Syria was not mere rioting but a
serious revolt against the Assad regime, Netanyahu called a discussion to
evaluate the situation, and decided to abandon the talks.
"This was a serious process
that did not ripen," the source concluded. "There was no
breakthrough, but there was a real sense of progress. Netanyahu was serious. If
the uprisings had not broken out in Syria, and we had another six
months of talks – things might have ripened."
U.S. confirms report of indirect peace talks between Netanyahu and Assad
Americans supported an attempt to bring Israel, Syria to negotiation table before violence erupted in Syria.
By Natasha
Mozgovaya and Barak Ravid |
Oct.13, 2012 | 12:52 AM
The United States Department of
State confirmed Friday the report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
relayed a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad in an effort to reach a
peace agreement between the two countries. The report of the talks first
surfaced in an article in the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot, earlier
on Friday.
Department of State spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland responded to reporters' questions about the report saying that
"prior to the eruption of all of the violence in Syria, there were efforts to try to support
contacts between Israel
and Syrian officials."
According to Nulland the U.S.
involvement in these preliminary negotiations was part of George Mitchell's
mandate.
Nuland added that "the
conditions in Syria
aren't suitable for a serious effort. But we all hope that we will have a new
day in Syria
and there will be another opportunity for her to make peace with her
neighbors."
According to the report in Yediot
Aharanot, Netanayhu agreed to withdraw from the entire Golan
Heights, and return to June 4 1967 lines. According to a source
who was intimately involved in the talks, however, in practice the prime
minister's proposal was slightly different. Netanyahu expressed willingness to
discuss the Syrian demand for a full Israeli withdrawal, but only on the
condition that Assad accept a series of Israeli demands regarding the military
alliance between Syria, Iran
and Hezbollah, as well as Syrian support for Palestinian terror organizations.
The source, who took part in the
talks and asked to remain anonymous as he had agreed to maintain
confidentiality, agreed to recount some of the details of the talks that took
place between Damascus and Jerusalem on the eve of the outbreak of
revolt against the Assad regime.
In his message Netanyahu said that
he would be ready discuss Syria's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the
Golan Heights, to June 4 1967 lines, on the condition that Syria agree to
abandon its alliance with Iran and Hezbollah, the report claimed.
The indirect talks that were
undertaken with American mediation did not yield results, however, and were
abandoned by Israel
in March 2011 after the extent of the rebellion against the Assad regime became
clear.
Israel
Negotiations: I am not surprised
Negotiations: I am not surprised
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