JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Negotiations between Israel and Syria are not expected
to resume until next month, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.
The sources said the Clinton administration has shelved efforts to bring
Syrian and Israeli leaders together for further negotiations and will focus
on continuing to send drafts of a U.S. document that will serve as a basis
of a peace treaty. The administration, the sources said, believes that
Washington can bring Israel and Syria closer without an immediate resumption
of negotiations.
Instead, President Bill Clinton plans to be in steady telephone contact
with Syrian President Hafez Assad and Prime Minister Ehud Barak to ensure
progress in the drafting of the U.S. document.
Israel and Syria are expected to send experts next week to Washington to
work on the U.S. draft. Barak is expected to approve sending a delegation on
Thursday.
Senior U.S. officials will meet separately with the Israeli and Syrian
delegations. U.S. officials said the two delegations would not be in
Washington at the same time.
"We made a judgment as the mediators that it would not be fruitful to
return to Shepherdstown and begin discussions today," State Department
spokesman James Rubin said. "We concluded that since both sides had
indicated
their determination to deal with their issue of concern and have that dealt
with and resolved first, that we wouldn't have been able to achieve much.
And we decided that we needed to develop an alternative method to enable the
parties to get their needs met in a simultaneous fashion."
Despite the breakdown in negotiations, the sources, Israel and Syria are
not far apart in their positions. They said Syria's reasons for raising
demands that have shelved the resumption of negotiations stem from the
current visit of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to the United
States.
"Israel is at the crossroads of great significance and not only
regarding the Golan Heights," Uri Saguy, head of the Israeli negotiating
team, said on Thursday. "This is not a theoretical game between Israel and
Syria. The leaders of Israel and Syria are blessed with understanding and
they can do this."
Saguy said Syria's economic problems are pressing Damascus to race ahead
of the Palestinians to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
For their part, Syria called on the United States to pressure Israel to
commit to a withdrawal from the entire Golan Heights. "The American
cosponsor should not be evenhanded on a basic issue on which the
establishment of peace or the continuation of the state of war heavily
depends," the official Al Baath newspaper said on Thursday.
In Washington, Clinton continued to express optimism over the prospect
of an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty. "Neither side has decided to back away
from the peace talks, call an end to them, call a freeze to them," Clinton
said. "That's not what's going on. They are having a genuine dispute about
sequencing now that I'm trying to work through for both of them."
"And I would not say the gaps in the positions are 90 percent; I'd say
they're much closer to 10 percent than 90 percent."
Meanwhile, the Clinton administration is preparing Congress and public
opinion for a Washington-financed effort to launch an economic recovery
program for Syria. The administration is encouraging members of Congress to
visit Syria over the next few weeks.
Israeli sources said U.S. philanthropist Daniel Abraham, a Clinton
supporter, has sought to recruit the Israeli Embassy in Washington and
Jewish organizations to press members of Congress to visit Syria. Abraham
has offered to fly the members of Congress in his private jet.
