For the first time, Syrian diplomats in a conference for peace with Israeli participation

Western diplomatic sources told the London-based al-Hayat daily that a Syrian diplomat had for the first time taken part with Israeli experts and officials in an international conference organized by the Wilton Park organization in London, with the participation of some 70 officials, diplomats, academics and experts from the Middle East and foreign states including the US, Britain and Turkey.

The sources stated that Damascus had agreed in an unprecedented event on the participation of a chancellor at the Syrian Foreign Ministry and former ambassador, Rafik Jeijati, in the "undeclared" conference which was held on July 26-30.

It was attended by the security advisor for the Israeli prime minister, Uzi Arad; a professor at Bar-Ilan University, Efraim Inbar; Joel Peters from Ben Gurion University; and Mark Heller form the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

The sources said the participants in the conference were "talking directly to each other" and that, "Bilateral meetings were held in an official way in the evenings of the days of the conference."

The French Foreign Ministry financed part of this project.

The sources said that discussions are "formulated in a paper given to the participants and their countries," adding that the importance of these discussions lies in that they create "a true picture about the other side's views."

The sources said that discussions, besides the future of Iraq, Iran and the Kurdish question, also addressed the "peace process following the Israeli elections."

The participants said that what took place in Israel "was a change and not a revolution and that the former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had lost the elections" because everybody voted against him and not necessarily for the interest of Ehud Barak who in general succeeded due to internal affairs pertaining to problems between religious people and seculars in Israel.

Inbar read a lecture under the title "Israel's Place in the Middle East: Building More Positive Links with Neighbors;" Arad's lecture was under the title "Refugees and Regional Security;" Peters's was "Can the Multilateral Process now be Revived?," whereas Heller read a lecture under the title "The Middle East Peace Process: Prospects after the Elections in Israel" in the presence of the ambassadors of certain foreign states, including Syria and Israel.

On the Syrian track, the sources said the participants found that, "As far as Barak promised to withdraw from south Lebanon within one year, and he knows the Syrian-Lebanese relations, there is an optimism on the Syrian track which is easier than the Palestinian track."

The sources added that indicators show "that peace is possible within one year," and that there is a feeling that Israel is ready to bargain land for peace, "but the question is the depth of the withdrawal."

The Syrian message to the conference was that withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 line is not negotiable, while other topics, including normalization, water, security and timing are negotiable.

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