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Israel to return Golan to Syria?

BEIRUT: Two independent Syrian publications reported on Wednesday that Israel has passed a message to Damascus through Turkey’s Prime Minister that it is prepared to return the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for a peace treaty.

Neither the Syrian government nor Israeli officials would comment on the reports. But, if confirmed, the message could be a sign of progress in back-channel contacts, years after formal peace negotiations broke down.

The reports come after both Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said their countries had exchanged messages. Mr. Olmert told Israeli newspapers last week that the messages clarified what each would expect from a future peace deal.

“They know what we want from them, and I know full well what they want from us,” Mr. Olmert told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

“Israel is open to peace with Syria,” he told another paper, Maariv.

Mr. Assad on Sunday told officials of the ruling Baath party that the message exchange explored the possibility of resuming peace talks. Israel “knows well what is accepted and not accepted by Syria,” he said.

Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations broke down in 2000 over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 war. Syria demands a full return of the territory, but Israel wanted to keep a small strip of land along the Sea of Galilee to ensure its control of the lake.

The peace contacts are taking place despite high tensions between the two countries in recent months, largely stemming from an Israeli air attack on a Syrian military facility in September.

Some foreign reports have said the target was a nuclear installation Syria was building with North Korean assistance, a claim Damascus denies.

The reports on Wednesday appeared in Champress, an online Syrian news website, and in the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, which is independent but close to Mr. Assad’s government.

The publications do not officially reflect government thinking, but in a country where state security generally monitors and controls the news flow, such dissemination indicates at least tacit government consent.

That the government would allow the reports to be published is significant, since it could raise expectations among the Syrian public in a country where the state often warns that Israel is not ready for peace. —AP

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