Damascus links peace negotiations to withdrawal from the Golan

Damascus has expressed its preference for the victory of Israeli Labor Party candidate Ehud Barak in the Israeli election, adding that Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations will be kept "suspended" if the Israeli side does not commit to full withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, when Barak wins the elections.

The Syrian Arabic daily Tishreen, which reflects official policy, said today that "The coming days and weeks will reveal whether Israel, if Barak wins, has proceeded towards a genuine peace, durable, fair and comprehensive, a peace based on the international law supremacy and the UN charter."

However, the Syrian paper added, "The peace negotiations will continue to be frozen if leader of the Likud Bloc Benjamin Netanyahu wins the Israeli elections."

Peace negotiations on the Syrian track were halted at the beginning of 1996, following the decision taken by then-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres to hold an early election. The deadlock in the peace process continued after Netanyahu won the Israeli elections and set up a rightist government.

In its editorial, Tishreen said that Barak exaggerated more than Netanyahu in many matters relating to Israeli security and that he did not take clear promises towards "promoting the Middle East peace process according to UN Security Council resolutions and the land-for-peace principle."

The Syrian paper continued, "All Barak did was commitment to withdraw from south Lebanon within one year and to resume the peace negotiations with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians, but without determining the grounds on which these talks are built."

The Syrian daily said that Damascus "had refused in the past, is refusing today and later on to get herself involved in any talks which do not stem from restoring back the whole Golan to the Syrian sovereignty as well as Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon and the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 425."