| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel urged to |
| 2007-06-09 |
| A peace agreement with Syria could pull Damascus out of Iran's orbit, a senior Western diplomat based in Israel said Thursday. The secular Sunni nation, ruled by minority Alawites, has nothing in common with Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, he added. The diplomat said this assessment has been relayed to Israeli officials. He said despite the flurry of media reports about a greater openness among some in the government for engaging the Syrians, he had not seen any change in the formal Israeli position that any such talks could not take place until Damascus ended its support for Hizbullah and Hamas. "We can break Syria away from Iran," the official said, adding that what was needed in Israel was the "political will and courage" to negotiate with Damascus over the return of the Golan Heights. The official said that given the political weakness of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, he doubted the prime minister would be "strong" enough to sign an agreement with the Syrians that would entail the return of the Golan. The official said Syria understood that a deal with Israel would necessitate breaking away from Iran and ending its support for Hizbullah and Hamas. The Jerusalem Post has learned that in the past few months Turkey approached the Syrians to "test the waters" about negotiating with Israel and that the Turks concluded Syria was serious about talks. The Turks, however, did not get a similar sense of interest from Israel. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 A peace agreement with Syria could pull Damascus out of Iran's orbit, a senior Western diplomat based in Israel said Thursday. The secular Sunni nation, ruled by minority Alawites, has nothing in common with Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, he added. Who's the senior dipwad? This is B.S. Someone conned this senior diplo. When it comes to the West, the islamics are united against the Great Satan and the Little Satan. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are Sunni or Shia. They all do their part in the war against the West. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-06-09 12:03 |
| #1 senior |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-06-09 00:37 |