Damascus diplomacy

Gregg Carlstrom | June 13, 2009 11:27 AM | 0 | recommend (0) |   |      

A quick detour from our wall-to-wall coverage of the Iranian elections: George Mitchell, the U.S. Middle East envoy, was in Damascus yesterday for talks with Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad.

They exchanged the usual diplomatic niceties: We're going to have "a dialogue of mutual respect!" But Al-Assad also said he's willing to restart diplomatic talks with Israel, via Turkish intermediaries, as long as Israel is willing to discuss the return of the Golan Heights. Which, of course, it isn't.

So I'll ask my favorite question again: What will they discuss?

I was in Syria for a month in 2007, and I asked dozens of people what it would take to bring about peace with Israel. The answer was always the same: They have to return the Golan Heights.

And real polls (as opposed to interviewing falafel shop owners) reach the same conclusion: A majority of Syrians would support signing a peace treaty in exchange for the Golan.

They won't make any real progress if the Golan is off the table.

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Categories: Diplomacy, Israel & Palestine, Syria

Tags: Bashar Al-Assad, George Mitchell, Golan Heights, Israel

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