Iran's regime angered by Syria's new alignment with U.S.

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran's Islamic regime appears to be growing angrier toward Syrian negotiations with Israel and the prospects that Damascus would sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Arab and Western diplomats said that in talks with their Iranian counterparts and officials, Teheran appears alarmed by the prospect that the U.S.-mediated negotiations would lead to full diplomatic relations between Israel and Syria and a turn by Damascus away from Iran and toward Washington.

The diplomats said they don't expect President Hafez Assad to decide on such a change. But Teheran fears that Assad's successor, particularly his son Bashar, could make such a decision.

"Iran is waiting for the succession issue to be decided," a Western diplomatic source said. "This will be the most important signal regarding the future of Iranian-Syrian relations."

The diplomatic sources said Iran appears to have concluded that Bashar will be aligned with the United States if he succeeds the 69-year-old Assad. Assad's health is deteriorating and Syrian sources don't expect him to be able to function more than a year.

The two countries could have their first full airing of view when Bashar arrives for talks in Teheran. The sources said the visit had been delayed until after the last round of negotiations with Israel, which ended on Monday. They said it is unclear whether Bashar would make the trip until the outcome of the current negotiations is decided.

Both the diplomats as well as Iranian government sources said the Islamic regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appears split over how to respond to any Israeli-Syrian peace treaty. They said Khamenei appears resigned to such a prospect while many of his allies, said such a development would result in Arab and U.S. pressure to follow suit.

The result, the diplomats said, is that Iranian opponents of a Syrian peace have been leaking statements by Khamenei against Syria. Last week, the Doha-based Al Jazeera satellite television quoted Khamenei as terming the Syrian-Israeli negotiations as "a great treason against the Arabs and Muslims."

On Sunday, the television station denied the report. The Iranian embassy in Damascus did the same.

On Monday, the Teheran-based Iran Daily warned that Israeli territorial concessions would result in a high price for the Arabs. The daily, which is regarded as a mouthpiece of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said Assad is determined to talk peace out of weakness.

"Firstly, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was a traditional ally of Assad's Ayria, the Arab countries' standing, particularly in the military sphere, plunged in a all-time low. In fact, Syria has not signed a single important arms deal since 1993, and it has large unpaid debts to the Kremlin," the newspaper said.

The editorial suggested that peace with Israel would not last and is not in the interest of the Syrian people. "Real and long-lasting peace can only be built on the will of the people concerned and for their interest," the newspaper said. "Does the Syrian-Israeli peace talk fulfill this very basic criteria, or is it just another exercise in futility? Time will tell."

The newspaper, in what was perhaps the most cutting Iranian statement against Teheran's longtime ally, Assad, cited his deteriorating health and the succession issue as the reason Syria is negotiating peace with Israel. "There is also the personal gain for messrs Clinton, Barak and Assad," Iran Daily said. "Barak needs to appease his coalition partners with a positive move in the peace process before the extremists bring his coalition and him down. Assad, a frailing 69 year old has publicly said that he wants to leave a 'clean slate' to his successor, probably his son Bashar, and Clinton, in his last year of his scandal-tainted presidency wants to add this episode to his foreign ministry legacy."