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Israel’s Decision to Negotiate with Syria – Trap for Iran – Trend News Observer

Israel Materials 29 April 2008 19:48 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 April / Trend corr D. Khatinoglu/ Israel's urge to return Golan Heights to Syria, which is Iran's best ally, is intended to minimize Iran's impact on the processes on-going in the region.

On 27 April, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan left for Damascus to mediate in settlment of the Israeli-Syrian conflict. Syrian President Bashar Asad mentioned to press Israel's promise to leave the Golan Heights and called on Israel to officially confirm that in written form.

Israel's promise to return Syria's Golan Heights is a strategic step, aiming to hold away from Iran the official Damascus which is isolated from the Arab and West worlds, as well as to hold back Damascus's support to resistance organizations operating in Lebanon and Palestine. Thus, the heights will be returned only in words of mouth.

Though, previously US officials were against any discussions with Syria, now Condoleezza Rice officially supported Israeli-Syrian discussions.

The message about discussions of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Bashar Asad via Turkey's mediation coincided with other important events. In 2005, a terrorism act was committed against pro-West Lebanese Prime Minister Rafig Hariri. The event has been again included in agenda. The West and several other political organizations condemned Syria for the event. In this connection, last week USA and its allies got Resolution 1957 passed in the UN. According to the Resolution, the secret murder of Hariri should be disclosed. Otherwise, the issue should be solved in the international court and obviously Syria will have to speak at court.

On the other hand, the American Senate is to discuss the documents confirming that Israel bombed nuclear power stations in Syria in 2006. Finally, the issue, which was kept in secret for a year, has been solved and IAEA urged Bashar Asad to comment. The facts were included in the 'dossier' on Syria.

Moreover, 19th annulment of presidential elections in Lebanon is also connected with Syria. In Nov 2007, Emil Lahud's presidential office term expired and Lebanon remained without a president. According to the country's laws, President is elected from Maronite Christians. Syria supports General Michel Aoun nominated for presidency. Most of the officials in Lebanon, the Coalition of 14 March headed by the son of Rafig Hariri - Sadin, Arab Union and the West support Michel Suleymani, head of the army.

Israel is less likely to return Golan Heights to Syria. Though Tel-Aviv annexed them from its territory in 1981, it is not officially recognized by the international community. Nevertheless, there are 10,000 Jews living in this territory. Golan Heights are of strategic importance for Israel. The north of Israel, Jordan and Tel-Aviv can be fully controlled from this territory. On the other hand, Tel-Aviv and coalition forces strongly object to the decision of Olmert. The President Shimon Peres also expressed his dissatisfaction in this regard during his interview last week. The concrete answer of Olmert to this dissatisfaction is very interesting: "We know very well what we are doing and what we want. Syria also knows that." It is obvious that there is big confidence and policy behind this point of view.

In fact, the demands of Tel-Aviv are well-known: Syria should stop supporting Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon and should restrict its relations with Iran, Israel's enemy number one.

The demands of Tel-Aviv are also well-known to Syria. At present, the nuclear facilities of Syria are being discussed in the Senate. It can be supposed that the nuclear issue can be used as a means of pressure on Syria, in case it intervenes with the upcoming presidential elections in Lebanon.

The Syrian foreign minister's visit to Tehran on 25 April is also connected with the Lebanese elections. Iran tries this so that the presidential elections in Lebanon do not take place until the parliament elections in 2009. At present, the majority in the Lebanese parliament are representatives of the pro-west parties. The Premier Fuad Sinyora is also pro-west figure. Tehran wants to change the situation in the parliament in favour of its interests so that his allies will make up majority in the parliament. Iran needs Syria's support in order to do this.

Under such conditions, the initiative by Turkey to mediate between Israel and Syria is also interesting. "Moderate Islamic government of Turkey is an alternative against the radical Islamic policy of Iran and its allies," said Shimon Peres in November 2007 in his speech in Turkish parliament. In fact, during this period Turkey needed a veto by the Israeli lobbyists to the so-called Armenian genocide in U.S. Congress. Therefore, this issue was brought up for the discussions in U.S. Congress at that time.

Turkey itself is afraid of Iran's nuclear program. From strategic viewpoint, the nuclear arms in the neighbouring Tehran detriment Turkey and its authority in the region. So, prior to the visit of Turkish Premier to Syria the essence of the statement ' Ankara has taken big commitments to solve Israel-Syria conflict' becomes clear.

The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]

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