The Israeli Haaretz newspaper said yesterday that Syria and Israel almost agreed to start direct talks between them last December after a four-hour phone call between the resigning Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the mediation of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The agreement was frozen, though, as Israel later launched its military campaign against the Gaza Strip. Haaretz reported on Turkish sources saying that the joint declaration about the start of the talks would include Israel's agreement to withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for total peace and security arrangements. The sources explained that when Olmert arrived at Erdogan's residence during Olmert's visit to Ankara on December 22, Erdogan "suggested calling Assad and drafting a joint announcement about a direct discussion" between Syria and Israel. Up to that moment, contacts between the two parties had been indirect and brokered by Turkey. According to the source, Erdogan left the room, "called Assad, told him that Olmert was at his residence and asked whether he would accept Erdogan's mediation. Assad agreed and the two began drafting the statement. "Every few minutes Erdogan's assistant brought Olmert, who was in another room, notes from Erdogan's talk with Assad and asked for his comments. Erdogan passed Olmert's comments on to Assad and took down his responses, which he then passed on to Olmert. "The source said the three-way conversation continued for more than four hours, until about 1 a.m. Olmert told Erdogan he must return to Israel. Erdogan said he would continue talking to Assad and call Olmert the next day for his comments", which he would then pass on to Syria, Haaretz says. "The joint Syrian-Israeli statement was nearly finished and needed only a few corrected words to be completed" the Turkish source said. "After making the statement, the parties were to announce that they were ready to start direct negotiations." Few days later, though, Israel started its war on Gaza and Erdogan felt betrayed. "Nobody imagined that Olmert would go behind Erdogan's back like that and not even hint that he intended to start fighting in Gaza," the Turkish official said, adding it seemed Olmert and Erdogan were very close to a historic breakthrough. The Turkish sources told Haaretz that Erdogan had said, during his meeting with Olmert, that he was ready to mediate between Israel and Hamas in light of the continuing rocket launches from Gaza into southern Israel. However, Olmert did not answer, the sources went on to say, adding they realized at that moment that Israel would respond to the rocket launches but they did not hear this explicitly from Olmert. They also said they did not expect such terrible response. According to Haaretz, this situation reminds of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin's behavior in 1981 with President Sadat shortly before the bombardment of the Iraqi nuclear reactor. At the time, Sadat felt betrayed, too.
According to a Turkish source, "when Erdogan heard of the attack he said that Olmert had stabbed him in the back and that Israel must pay for it", as Arab states might think Ankara already knew about the military operation and had cooperated with Israel in this regard. Erdogan showed his anger and his feeling of being offended through his ferocious statements against Israeli leaders and his withdrawal from the Davos Forum after replying to the speech delivered by Israeli President Shimon Peres. Haaretz reported on an anonymous source as saying that Erdogan's withdrawal from the Davos Forum had been well-planned and had not been decided on the spot, as Turkey wanted to get back its sense of dignity.
