JERUSALEM: The US has given tacit approval to separate peace talks between Israel and Syria immediately after tomorrow's Middle East summit in Annapolis, Maryland.Diplomats believe that Syria's expected participation in the meeting to be chaired by the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, signals a likely resumption of direct talks between the country's Baathist regime and the Israeli Government, for the first time in more than a decade.
Syria had insisted that the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, seized from its control in the 1967 war, be on the table for discussion as a precondition for taking part in the summit.
Cf G(r)omgoru's Arab Way of war : start a war, lose a war, apply conditions to the victor.
On Friday it was among Arab countries that agreed to send ministers to the US for this week's meeting - itself the first US-hosted talks on the Middle East since president Bill Clinton's ill-fated final effort eight years ago. The Arab League's unanimous decision to take part in the summit was criticised by the Hamas movement on Saturday.
A spokesman said there could be no justification for taking part as long as Israel retained its hold on Palestinian territory and described the decision to do so as "a great shock".
But others were pleased. "At some point we need to have a renewed Israel-Syrian peace track. We need this," said the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Morocco.