Haartez: Israeli FM reacts seriously with al-Assad's initiative
Syria-Israel, Politics, 1/28/2004

The political research center at the Israeli foreign ministry expressed its assessment that the problem in the negotiations with Syria does not lie "in the Syrian seriousness, rather in the Israeli readiness to pay the price."

The Israeli daily daily Haartez which published the news said that the center is looking seriously at the initiative of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in order to resume negotiations with Israel.

According to the paper, the center warns Israel against the game of joining the negotiations with Syria and then withdrawing from it because of the heavy price represented by the withdrawal from the Golan heights, as had happened in the "Shepherds town negotiations." Noting that a behavior as such will be damaging for Israel.

The center also refuses assessments which say that it is possible to achieve a better agreement with Syria because of its current weakness at the regional forces balance or destroying the principle of "land for peace." It says Israel in best conditions can demand returning back to the international borders, rather than the borders of June 4, 1967.

Haartez said that this center is concerned with the intelligence information of political nature, and the Israeli foreign ministry yesterday debated the basics of the center for the first time in its history.

Previous Stories:
  Sharon: Negotiations with Damascus means the return back of the Golan   (1/20/2004)
  Katsaf invites al-Assad for negotiations in secret or in open, without conditions   (1/14/2004)
  Syrian official statement on peace with Israel   (1/13/2004)

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