Syria balancing Israel and Iran

Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: May 23. 2008 3:09AM UAE / May 22. 2008 11:09PM GMT

Suleiman Haddad, chairman of Syria’s foreign affairs committee, says Golan Heights belong to Syria. Phil Sands / The National

DAMASCUS // Syria’s close alliance with Iran will not be undermined by renewed peace talks with Israel, said officials and analysts in Damascus.

Since the announcement this week that Syrian and Israeli representatives were in Turkey for indirect negotiations – the first such talks in eight years – there has been speculation the move is designed to drive a wedge between Damascus and Tehran.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has said he is willing to discuss handing back the occupied Golan Heights in return for Syria cutting ties with Iran and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Hizbollah in Lebanon. Both militant groups receive support from the Iranians and Syrians.

Dana Perino, a spokesman for the White House, openly expressed the Bush administration’s hopes for such a result, as it continues to pressure Tehran over an alleged nuclear weapons programme.

“We believe it could help us to further isolate Iran,” she said, “so that we could get to a position where they would verifiably suspend their nuclear enrichment programme so that we could bring them to the table and have conversations about how we would integrate them into the international community.”

The United States considers Syria, along with Iran, to be a member of an “axis of evil” and state sponsor of terrorism. America has imposed unilateral economic sanctions on Damascus.

But the suggestion a peace deal would end Iranian influence and bring Syria into line with regional pro-western regimes is viewed here as having little substance.

“This will not affect Syria’s ties with Iran,” said Suleiman Haddad, chairman of the Syrian parliament’s Foreign and Arab Affairs Committee.

“Israel and America have no right to stop Syria’s relationship with Iran. There is no way Israel would agree to end it’s alliance with America as a precondition for peace talks, so why should Syria cut its ties with Iran?”

Mr Haddad, a member of Syria’s ruling Baath Party, said Syria wanted open, direct talks and would not accept preconditions over the return of the strategically important Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967 and subsequently annexed, a move illegal under international law. The two nations have been in a state of war since.

“It is our right to have the Golan returned and that right has no relation with other matters,” he said. “This is a question of national sovereignty.”

Unlike previous efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement, the current Turkish-mediated talks do not aim to reach a comprehensive deal involving the Palestinians, with whom the Israelis are involved in separate negotiations.

“We shouldn’t dismiss parallel efforts at reconciliation,” said Samir Altaqi, general co-ordinator at the Orient Centre for Studies, a Damascus-based think tank. “And we shouldn’t look at them as a strategy to divide. These talks won’t mean Syria will give up its relations with Iran.”

Discussions on resuming Israeli-Syrian dialogue, with Turkish mediation, are believed to have begun last year. This week’s talks did not involve face-to-face meetings between the two parties, relying instead of Turkish go-betweens. No details have been released, however, Mr Olmert, said he expected the process would be long, complex and could end in “difficult concessions” – an apparent reference to his willingness to hand back the Golan Heights.

Turkish officials said the talks were likely to continue over the coming months, in rounds lasting several days. Two of Mr Olmert’s aides returned to Israel on Wednesday after two days in Turkey.

Ziad Haider, Damascus correspondent for al Wattan newspaper, said regardless of motivations behind the talks, they were being approached with a genuine desire for a solution to the long-running conflict.

“Certainly in the western countries, especially Israel, there is a line of thought that one of the goals of this peace process is to pull Syria away from Iran and Hizbollah and the other resistance groups,” he said.

“Whatever those thoughts, I am sure Syria is sincere in wanting to achieve a peace deal with Israel. Syria gets nothing out of this ongoing confrontation and would rather be concentrating on improving the nation’s prosperity, than being in a state of permanent war.”

A key question hanging over the fledgling talks remains the ability of the Israeli leadership to deliver on any promise to return the Golan.

Polls say up to 70 per cent of Israelis oppose relinquishing the territories. A majority also believe the talks are being used by Mr Olmert as an effort to divert attention from his domestic problems.

Police are scheduled to question him today for a second time over suspicions he took bribes from an American businessman, allegations he denies.

psands@thenational.ae