Israel and the lake of Tabaraya
Syria-Israel, Politics, 3/25/2000

Just two days before the forthcoming summit on Sunday in Geneva between US President Bill Clinton and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Israel has stressed its determination to maintain its complete control on the lake of Tabaraya in the framework of any possible peace agreement with Damascus.

Former Israeli Army chief of staff and current Minister of Tourism Amnon Shahak told the official Israeli Radio that Israel wants complete control of the lake of Tabaraya and its surroundings so the Israelis will be able to move around it.

In his previous capacity as former chief of staff of the Israeli Army, Shahak led the negotiations, together with his Syrian counterpart, Lt. Gen. Hikmat al-Shehabi, in 1996. He was recently appointed by Israeli Premier Ehud Barak to the delegation of Israeli negotiators in the peace talks when they are resumed.

In this respect, the legal advisor at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Allan Baker, said in a statement to AFP that Clinton and President al-Assad will agree in Geneva on the future Syrian- Israeli borders.

But Shahak expressed doubts in this regard, saying that resuming negotiations following this summit gives hope of reaching a peace agreement. "But we have not to forget that there are several topics that were not agreed on yet," adding that, "Reaching an agreement requires hard talks."

However, Israel expressed its readiness to maintain a gradual withdrawal from the Golan but without explaining the volume of this withdrawal, and Israel also set a stipulation that its negotiations with Damascus will include security arrangements, sharing of water resources and normalization of relations in a way ensuring diplomatic, trade and tourism exchange.

In the recent days, Barak talked on the telephone with French President Jacques Chirac and with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan over the Middle East peace process.

Barak also met twice with the US ambassador in Israel, Martin Indyk, to discuss with him the Geneva summit and even certain rumors that spoke about the possibility of Barak's participation in this summit despite the fact that Barak's office denied this matter.

Previous Stories:
  Israeli official: Syrian- Israeli negotiations will be resumed after Geneva summit   (3/23/2000)
  Israeli sources and Geneva summit   (3/22/2000)
  American project on Middle East peace   (3/15/2000)

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