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BEIRUT: Syria is poised to join the Saudi Middle East peace proposal at next week’s Arab League summit in Beirut, after persuading Arab states to adjust the plan to meet its requirements.
While Damascus has reservations about “normalisation” of ties with Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal from occupied Arab land, diplomats say it has accepted a compromise that would not award Israel active diplomatic ties before it returns land.
“There is a Saudi compromise formula which substituted ‘normalisation of relations’ with ‘normal relations’ and the Syrians have accepted that,” one Western diplomat said.
Imad Shueibi, professor of political science at Damascus University who is close to Syria’s thinking, told Reuters: “Syria will be a supporter of the plan. The Saudi proposal has taken into consideration the Syrian recommendations,”.
Arab officials say the compromise wording reached this week by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the Palestinians emphasises “normal and comprehensive ties” in exchange for full withdrawal, leading Damascus to voice its approval of the plan.
Syrian Information Minister Adnan Omran said the proposal mirrored Syria’s own demands for a comprehensive settlement, while rejecting once again the concept of “normalisation”.
“This term does not exist in diplomatic parlance or international law. It is a rhetorical word and an Israeli invention,” Omran told Lebanon’s English-language Daily Star in an interview this week.
HARD-NOSED BARGAINING: Omran said Syria, whose assent to any peace deal is essential because Israel still occupies the Golan Heights captured from Syria in 1967, favoured the formula of “normal peaceful relations” that a settlement with Israel could bring.
The plan, floated by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in an interview with the New York Times last month, initially offered Israel normalisation of ties in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal.
Inspired by the hard-nosed bargaining of the late President Hafez al-Assad, the Syrians argued that normalisation would reward their enemy before it delivered its side of the deal.
Diplomats say Damascus is also cool about normalisation because it sees the open borders the term implies as a potential threat to its closed political and economic system.
Syria’s other concern — that the plan did not seem to deal with the right of 3.6 million Palestinian refugees to return to their homes — eased after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah earlier this month.
“The Syrians are anxious to make this summit work. There is an indication they will support what they can present as being consistent with their views,” a Damascus-based diplomat said.
“They persuaded the Saudis to have a plan which ensures that everybody stays in agreement,” the diplomat said.
INTRACTABLE ISSUES: Prince Abdullah has said most Arab states, including Syria, back the initiative he plans to put to the Mar 27-28 summit. Omran indicated Syria was now satisfied with the plan.—Reuters
