 Fearful of being left behind, Syrian President Bashar Assad has been telling people something quite startling - that he is willing to resume peace talks with Israel unconditionally. The Israeli and US response so far has been lukewarm, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisting Thursday that Syria first must crack down on militants. Publicly, Assad's government has backpedaled. Yet the overtures - documented by visitors including UN Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen - are another clear sign of how a virtually dead Middle East peace process has suddenly reached its most hopeful moment in years.
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"I don't think anybody is sitting very comfortably and nobody is pleased with the status quo," said Rami Khouri, executive editor of Lebanon's English-language Daily Star. "I think everybody - the Syrians and Israelis - are eager and even, I would say, desperate for a negotiated peace." The Syrian outreach may end up resulting in little, despite the optimism. Many analysts believe Sharon will focus first on talks with the Palestinians, who are seen by Israelis as more open to deals after the death of Yasser Arafat and next month's Palestinian elections. And the United States appears far more interested in pressuring Syria to stop militants from crossing into Iraq than in any vague peace overtures. Yet Assad - under strong US pressure on many fronts and needing international credibility to open his country economically - has clear reasons for reaching out now. "I would wager to say it has a lot to do with US pressure," said Jonathan Lincoln, a senior research associate at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. |