28 maart 2000

Barak zegt dat Assads Syrië niet klaar is voor vrede. Artikel The Jerusalem Post

Barak: Assad not ready for peace

By Danna Harman (Jerusalem Post)

JERUSALEM (March 28) - Prime Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that Syrian President Hafez Assad had "removed his mask," revealing he is "not ready to make the sort of decisions necessary for... peace."

Yet Barak tried his best to strike an optimistic note, telling members of his One Israel faction that "we have not closed the door even today on the continuation of talks with the Syrians," though talks would not resume anytime soon.

Barak said on Channel 2's Mishal Cham program last night that the disagreements come down to three issues: Israel's control of the Kinneret, and as a result, 40 percent of the country's water supply; security arrangements following a withdrawal from the Golan; and the fate of the early warning station on Mount Hermon.

Barak met twice with US special envoy Dennis Ross in Jerusalem to discuss the failed Geneva summit.

An official in Barak's office said the first meeting with Ross was somber but revealed little news. "Ross's briefing did not change anything in our way of understanding the situation, which is that there would be no point in renewing talks with the Syrians at this point. The conditions for doing so are not ripe."

Foreign Minister David Levy echoed these sentiments, charging that there had been no change in Assad's way of thinking, and if he believed the Syrians "could dictate their maximalist demands to us," they were sorely mistaken.

The official went on to say that Barak did not think this was "the end of the way" for the peace process with Syria, but would be leaving the efforts up to the Americans from now on.

"There is nothing we think we can do at this point and nothing we plan to do," said the official.

What Barak does intend to do now, indicated the official, is turn his attention more fully to the Palestinian track and concentrate on organizing the withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

"I would put it this way," said the official. "If we had been busy with the Syrian track now, naturally, the Palestinians would have had to show more patience - and as for the withdrawal, that will be carried out as planned."

Channel 2 reported that due to recent events, Barak is now considering moving up the withdrawal from Lebanon to April or May and that Levy is to meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss the matter this week.

Barak spokesman Gadi Baltiansky did not deny this report but said that no decision had yet been made. "We have said 1,000 times that the government will regroup and see where the Syrians are going and then make a decision regarding the redeployment," he said. "The prime minister has promised a withdrawal by July. That means sometime before July."

Barak met with Ross for a second time late last night.

The Syrians, meanwhile, were spinning the story a different way. According to one source who spoke with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara yesterday, Assad was disappointed and unhappy with the outcome of the meeting.

Shara said they had expected more from Clinton and had found the offers he conveyed from Barak to be inflexible. "The US thought they would be able to pressure us, but we could not accept what was being offered," Shara said, according to the source.

In a briefing held in Geneva for the Syrian press, the reporters were told that Assad said the following during his meeting with Clinton: "I have held barbecues at the Sea of Galilee, swam in its waters, sat on its shores and eaten fish from it. I have no intention of giving it up."

Ross, who has reportedly voiced his disappointment with the summit's outcome in private conversations, tried to sound upbeat in public yesterday.

Speaking to reporters at the Knesset after meeting with Barak, he said US President Bill Clinton and the administration would "continue to try and find the best way forward and continue to work with the parties and try and make headway."

During a meeting in Jerusalem early yesterday, Yisrael Ba'aliya leader Natan Sharansky praised Barak for not caving in to Syrian pressure.

(David Zev Harris and Itim contributed to this report.)