Syria's patience seems to be paying off as talks with Israel are renewed, reports Bassel Oudat from Damascus According to media sources, unofficial talks between Syria and Israel took place in Greece last week. The talks held between Syrian and Israeli academics 21-22 July were described as being of an "exploratory nature". They were held on the sidelines of an international conference and were reportedly sponsored by the Greek Foreign Ministry and the American government. Syrian officials have not denied the news. Samir Al-Taqi, director of the Orient Centre for International Relations, Muslim Al-Durubi, a researcher known for his close links to the Syrian government, and Hoda Al-Hemsi, the Syrian ambassador to Athens, attended. Representing the US was Daniel Kurtzer, the former US ambassador to Israel and Egypt, and a man who may soon become US ambassador to Syria. Another US official reported to be present was Robert Mali, former special assistant to president Bill Clinton on Arab-Israeli affairs, who now runs the Middle East Programme of the Crisis Group. Just before he was elected, United States President Barack Obama sent Kurtzer to Syria, where he met with Syrian officials and discussed ways to revive Syrian-Israeli talks. The visit was seen as a prelude to improvement in relations between Damascus and Washington. News of the Athens talks, which was leaked through a Syrian website, did not come as a total surprise. Unofficial talks between the Syrians and the Israelis have been going on for nearly four years. In 2007, Al-Taqi went with a negotiating team to Turkey for unofficial talks that led to indirect talks between Syria and Israel in 2008. In the 1990s, Syrian academics held talks with the Israelis in what came to be known as "parallel diplomacy". Among those participating in the talks were professors Aziz Shokri of Damascus University and Ilyas Samou of Aleppo University. The latter wrote several articles calling on Syrian academics and officials to engage in similar encounters. In January 2007, Swiss Foreign Minister Michelin Calmy-Rey said that Syria and Israel were holding talks under Swiss sponsorship. "Now the talks are no longer secret because the media has reported them," she added. Swiss officials visited Damascus in the same month to discuss the possibility of a peace deal between Israel and Syria. Back then, Haaretz reported that a secret deal discussed under Swiss sponsorship was being ironed out with the knowledge of Vice- President Farouk Al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallim, and a senior Syrian intelligence officer. The deal calls for "a gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied Syrian territories to the 4 June 1967 borders in return for Damascus halting its help to Hizbullah and Hamas and distancing itself from Iran." Syria didn't mention at the time that Swiss diplomat Michel Ambhul and Middle East Desk chief Nicolas Lang, who were visiting Syria, were on a peace mediation mission. Syrian official sources just said that the Swiss delegation discussed "means to reinforce economic relations". According to Western diplomatic sources in Damascus, the two Swiss diplomats held several meetings with foreign and Arab diplomats and senior Syrian security officials. In April 2007, Syrian American businessman Ibrahim Suleiman said that he held unofficial peace talks with the Israelis from September 2004 to July 2006. The Syrian government said it had no knowledge of such talks. Shortly afterwards, Suleiman told a Knesset hearing that Syria and Israel were "capable of reaching a peace agreement within six months if need be." He added that "peace was at hand" and that only minor points remained unresolved. Professor Samou, who teaches international relations at US and Syrian universities, says that talks are essential. "It is best to reconsider the Syrian position of these conferences [between Syrians and Israelis] because we as Syrians need to keep the occupation of the Golan alive in the memory of the world, not only in the memory of the Syrians. The subject of the Golan should remain on the agendas of official and unofficial regional talks and should be discussed at international conferences concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict." Syrian officials are averse to publicising talks with the Israelis, so as not to be seen as "normalising" ties. But Samou disagrees. "The normalisation argument was valid before the Madrid Conference of 1991, but it has disappeared since then, as the Syrians and Israelis have met face to face in open and official talks for nine years, and normalisation hasn't happened," he pointed out. After a round of secret and unofficial talks with Israel, Syria declared in March 2008 that it was starting to engage in indirect talks with Turkish mediation. Four rounds of talks were held in one year in Istanbul and Ankara. It is believed that the two sides managed to narrow their differences during these talks. By the end of the fourth session, the Syrians said they were ready for direct talks, but only if Israel agrees beforehand to withdraw from the occupied territories, and if the Americans were to sponsor the talks. The Syrians' insistence on US sponsorship was such that Damascus turned down an EU offer to act as facilitator. Following Israel's war on Gaza earlier this year, the talks stopped. Syria maintains that the indirect talks are a first step to direct talks. For the latter to gain credibility, the Americans should act as facilitators. Syrian officials say that Washington needs to guarantee the agreement so that the Israelis wouldn't change their position later on. Damascus has made it clear in messages to the US administration that US sponsorship was a must. Recently, Yediot Aharonot reported that senior Israeli officials have held meetings with Syrian negotiators. The newspaper added that only three Israeli officials -- one of them Mossad Chief Meir Dagan -- knew about the talks. The paper claimed that messages were exchanged last year between former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The newspaper said that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who visited Syria and Israel last year, was involved in arranging these encounters. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who toured both countries in September last year, has relayed messages back and forth between Syria and Israel, as has Jordanian King Abdullah. Syrian official sources ruled out the possibility that more mediators would be sponsoring indirect talks between Syria and Israel. The Turks were doing fine and have the trust of both sides, officials said. Any talks or negotiations concerning the peace talks with Israel would be held openly and in the presence of international parties, an official Syrian source told Al-Ahram Weekly. As for the meeting between Syrian and Israeli academics, the source added that academics attending international conferences are there in their professional capacity and not as representatives of the Syrian government. Although the US has not sponsored the talks, Syria is pressing on with negotiations because it wants to break its international isolation. Damascus is also hoping for a change in US policy under Obama. The Syrian president has said more than once that Damascus was ready for a peace deal with Israel that would bring back Syrian land and restore Syria's sovereignty on that land. The Syrians want to reach a deal through official and direct negotiations. So far, talks between Syria and Israel have proved to be quite complex even in comparison with the Camp David talks of Egypt or the Wadi Araba talks of Jordan. For example, the two sides need to resolve the questions of Lake Tabaria, water sharing, demilitarised zones, and military monitoring, as well as Syria's ties with Hizbullah, Hamas and Iran. Syrian analysts say that so far the indirect talks haven't succeeded in sorting out all the points of difference between the two countries. More clarifications and exact wording are needed. That's where talks among academics on both sides may prove most helpful. Non- official as they are, they still may bring everyone closer to a deal.
