Israeli cabinet splits over dealing with Syria's ailing Assad
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, March 8, 2000
JERUSALEM -- A dispute has divided the cabinet of Prime Minister Ehud Barak over the prospects of
negotiating a peace treaty with the ailing Syrian President Hafez Assad.
For the first time, ministers have expressed to Barak their objection to
completing a peace treaty with Assad amid intelligence reports from Israel
and the United States that the Syrian leader is barely functioning and his
health is rapidly deteriorating. The ministers warned Barak that no
successor to Assad will honor a treaty that was said to have been signed by
a man struck with dementia.
The dispute has emerged as the United States is working to conclude a
peace treaty between Israel and Syria within several weeks. Officials said
that currently Israel -- which has agreed to a full withdrawal from the
Golan Heights -- is considering U.S. proposals to bridge the gap with
Damascus over a range of issues.
The ministers cited intelligence reports that described Assad as
suffering from an acute stage of leukemia as well as dementia. They said the
reports indicate that the post-Assad period will be marked by a violent
power struggle and that the president's son, Bashar, does not appear likely
to succeed.
So far, at least five ministers are urging Barak to wait until Assad's
successor is appointed and functioning until a peace treaty is signed. Other
ministers, however, are said to agree with this position although they have
not expressed this.
But Barak and at least four other ministers are urging that a peace
treaty be signed now when Assad is weak and is battling the clock. They
assert that any deal signed by Assad will be observed by his predecessors,
intent on receiving U.S. and Western aid.
"With this puzzle, many people here and in every other place have been
dealing with for a long time," Foreign Minister David Levy said. "This
should not be what stands in front of us, but whether Syria wants peace."
Levy said the key question is not whether Assad's health is fading, but
whether the president agrees to Israel's terms for peace. This includes such
issues as borders, normalization, security arrangements and water rights.
"It Syria's face is toward peace, it knows what to do," Levy said.
But so far, ministers said, Assad has failed to respond to Israel's
demands for an early-warning station on Mount Hermon, normalization and
security arrangements. The ministers said at this point Syria has fallen far
short of what Egypt was prepared to give Israel in their 1979 peace treaty.
Wednesday, March 8, 2000
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