Syria offers "peace" in response to ISG proposals

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By Stan Goodenough
December 17, 2006

A week after the controversial Iraq Study Group recommended that the Bush administration open discussions with Iran and Syria in a bid to extricate the US from Iraq, Syrian strongman Bashar el-Assad invited Israel to talk peace.

Analysts believe Syria was leaping to seize the ISG proposal, which offered US help to get the Golan Heights given to Syria in exchange for Damascus’ willingness to stop supporting the anti-Iraq insurgency.

Israel annexed the Heights in 1981 after driving the Syrian occupiers off the plateau from which their troops had fired down on Jewish farmers and residents in the Upper Galilee for more than 19 years.

The Golan constitutes part of ancient Israel and was included in the land set aside for Jewish close settlement by the League of Nations in 1923.

Prior to the ISG report, Syrian had always insisted that Israel open negotiations for peace from the starting point that the Golan Heights would be handed over.

On Saturday, however, Assad had his Foreign Minister Walid Moallem speak about “the noble cause” of Arab-Israeli peacemaking, and saying that Syria would not demand the surrender of the Golan Heights as a precondition for peace talks.

Related Articles:

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• 'Iran could have the bomb in a year'
• Syrian nukes were creeping up on Israel
• Golan Heights suddenly under new threat
• Iran - again - threatens to wipe Israel off the map

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