Not necessarily a honeymoon

By Dina Ezzat
Palestinian and Syrian leaders put an end to speculation on Tuesday when they met in Amman on the fringe of the Arab summit, holding two sessions of talks on Tuesday evening in the presence of senior aides from both sides.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was sceptical as to the benefits of the closed tête-à-tête Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had requested, said one diplomatic source, adding that the Syrian president agreed to this meeting not to convey a message to the media but to restart bilateral relations on the right bases.
Rumours that a Syrian-Palestinian summit was in the works have been making the rounds for over a year. At the most difficult moments of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, diplomats and observers wondered about the possibility of a meeting between Arafat and the Syrian leadership.
Al-Assad père was openly critical of what Damascus saw as Arafat's conciliatory approach and unilateral decision to continue negotiations with Israel after signing the Oslo deal in 1993. Damascus had described the negotiations conducted under the Oslo umbrella as "prostitution" process.
During the Tuesday meeting, diplomatic sources say, his son did not retract any of the criticism of Arafat's policies.
"Quite the opposite: the president was very keen to assert that Damascus cannot conduct close coordination with the Palestinians if they return to their previous policies," commented a Syrian diplomatic source. Nor did the two leaders fix a date for a visit Arafat has been trying in vain to make to the Syrian capital for the past nine months. During the first months of his rule, Al-Assad was following his father's line on the Palestinian president.
"Arafat was very keen [on mending fences with Syria], but Al-Assad was convinced deep down that he was not a man to be trusted. He knew that, with the first offer to be made by the Americans, Arafat would turn his back on Damascus," commented a Syrian diplomat.
When Hafez Al-Assad passed away last June, however, Syrian authorities allowed Arafat to attend the funeral --an obvious sign that Bashar was willing to consider reconciilation.
Palestinian Minister of Planning Nabil Shaath told reporters on the eve of the summit that the meeting was the result of monthly sessions bringing together a limited group of Arab foreign ministers over the past five months, with Palestinian and Syrian participation.
"We were meeting other Arab foreign ministers to follow up on the implementation of the Cairo summit decisions pertaining to the Palestinian cause [after the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out]. There, it became clear that there are no categorical differences between the Palestinian and Syrian positions on the peace process, and we agreed on the meeting," Shaath said. "There is no point in [disparaging] Palestinian-Syrian rapport at this time," he added -- a clear reference to the hostility expressed by newly elected hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
This meeting alone, however, is not enough to secure serious Palestinian-Syrian reconciliation. In fact, it could turn out to be a simple ceremony if it is not backed up by thorough policy coordination, particularly with regard to peace negotiations with Israel.
Bashar's message to the Palestinian leadership was unambiguous. In his speech before the opening session, the Syrian president glanced toward Arafat and said: "Let bygones be bygones. We do not live in the past, but we learn from it." Bashar, who had virtually ridiculed the Palestinian approach to peace, was careful to make the caveats clear: "To our Palestinian brethren, we say that we are standing by your side... [only] to restore all Arab rights undivided, and with no concessions in return."
Bashar also warned against falling once again for Israeli attempts to play the Palestinian track off against the Syrian.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Sharaa insisted that Damascus "expects the Palestinians not to go back to the unilateral approach if the Bashar-Arafat meeting is to bear fruit." Al-Sharaa said that potential coordination between the Syrians and Palestinians will be examined carefully in a set of bilateral meetings, scheduled to take place in the near future.
But even simple coordination may prove to be a difficult task. During the foreign ministers' meeting that led to the summit, open confrontations were witnessed between Al-Sharaa and his Palestinian counterpart, Farouq Qaddoumi. The subject of debate was coordination between the Palestinian and Syrian tracks -- a chronic stumbling block in Palestinian-Syrian relations since the Madrid peace conference in 1991. While Qaddoumi was speaking of "integration of the tracks," Al-Sharaa made reference to "the parallel development of both tracks." A compromise formulation ("the unity" of tracks) was reached upon an Egyptian suggestion.
But as one diplomat commented, "the test of the pudding is in the eating." He added that, for significant improvements to occur in Palestinian-Syrian relations, the Palestinian Authority must coordinate closely with the Syrian government and brief it on developments in talks, and even negotiation plans, with Israel. Syria will have to do the same. Syria will also need to restrain its criticism of the Palestinian Authority, and reign in political manoeuvres from Palestinian opposition factions based in Damascus. "This seems very difficult," the diplomat mused. "But who knows?"
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