Laya Rabin and peace with Syria

Widow of the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Laya Rabin said "when my husband assumed the office of the Cabinet in 1992, the first thing he did was that he opened a channel with Syria as he was ready to evacuate the Golan height for peace with Syria."

In an interview with the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily issued on Saturday, she added " when it seemed very difficult to evacuate the Golan for peace with Syria, Rabin did not wait one complete year, like the current government," adding "one year has already passed and we are hesitant between yes or no. Yes we will give up these last meters of the Tiberies lake and no we will not." She added Rabin said " we will try now to continue negotiations with the Palestinians but he did not leave the matter pending for one year."

She added that the relations between the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is very bad and is characterized by hatred and lack of confidence.

She doubted the possibility of finding a solution or settling the most complicated issues in the conflict under these circumstances, noting that Barak's non- confidence in Arafat is behind Barak's abstention from implementing the signed agreements including the third re-deployment stage.