Jerusalem - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must
understand that Israel will not return the Golan Heights to him on a
'silver platter' if he continues to support Iran and its radical
Islamist proxies in the region, Israel's president said Monday.
Shimon Peres asked visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier to deliver a 'clear' message to Damascus, saying Israel
was willing to start immediate, non-mediated peace negotiations with
Syria, without preconditions.
Steinmeier met with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem Monday, before
heading to Damascus for talks with Assad and to Beirut to meet with
with Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad Hariri the next day.
A planned stopover in the West Bank city of Ramallah Monday was
cancelled due to an unannounced, last-minute visit by Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas to Jordan. But Germany's top diplomat did
instead meet in Jerusalem with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erekat, who charged that the new Israeli government of hardline Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not genuinely interested in renewing
peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Israel would not allow the occupied Golan Heights to become a
rocket-launching pad of the Iranian-backed, Lebanese radical Shiite
Hezbollah movement, Peres said.
'It's his strategic choice,' he said of Assad.
Steinmeier landed in Tel Aviv before dawn on his 14th visit to the
region since taking office in 2005. He was slated to meet Netanyahu
in the late afternoon, and in the evening with controversial Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the far-right Israel Beiteinu party,
the largest coalition partner of Netanyahu's hardline, but mainstream
Likud.
In his talks with Peres - whose duties as president are largely
ceremonial - Steinmeier re-emphasized the two-state solution to the
conflict and called for a resumption of peace talks.
'The road to stability in the entire region leads only through
talks with the Palestinian side,' he told reporters. 'My personal
conviction is: A guarantee for stability can only come through the
realization of the two-state solution.'
Netanyahu - who later this week completes his first 100 days in
office after rising to power following elections in February in which
the right-wing bloc of parties headed by his Likud won a majority of
mandates - had initially refused to openly support the two-state
solution. He finally made a public endorsement of a - demilitarized -
Palestinian state in a June 14 policy speech, following intense
pressure from the US and also European leaders.
But Netanyahu had refused to accept demands for a complete freeze
of construction in Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank, a
demand the Palestinians have made a condition for any resumption of
peace negotiations. He has also demanded security guarantees from the
international community prior to the creation of any Palestinian
state, and demanded the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of
the Jewish people before a final peace deal can be signed.
'It is completely clear that a condition for all talks is Israel's
security and that of its people,' said Steinmeier, who toured the Yad
Vashem Holocaust memorial immediately after his parley with Peres.
Moderate Arab states should 'contribute to this task,' he said,
adding 'I believe this is the vision which also stands behind the new
initiative of the American president.'
Netanyahu has also vowed to pursue a policy of 'reciprocity,'
insisting on Palestinian and Arab counter-steps in exchange for any
Israeli 'concessions.' As part of this, he wants Arab states to
gradually move toward normalizing ties with Israel even before a
Palestinian state is created.
Erekat charged Israel was evading its international obligations,
notably by refusing a complete freeze of settlement activity.
Peres nonetheless insisted that 'Netanyahu wants peace.' Since
taking office, the Israeli government had improved the movement of
Palestinians in the West Bank by removing key military roadblocks, he
noted.
USA
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