9 April 2005	Saturday	29 Safar 1426

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TEL AVIV, April 8: Israel’s president said he shook hands with the leaders of Syria and Iran at a Vatican funeral on Friday when in his death Pope John Paul brought together Middle East foes as no man alive ever had.

Gathered with hundreds of international dignitaries, Israel’s Moshe Katsav had historic chance encounters with President Bashar Assad of Syria, a country formally at war with the Jewish state, and President Mohammad Khatami of Iran.

A senior Israeli government official said it was too early to say whether the contacts, believed to be the first time an Israeli president had shaken hands with Syrian and Iranian leaders, would translate into future diplomacy.

There was no immediate comment from Iran or Syria on the encounters, first reported by Israel Radio. Nor was it clear whether they were captured on film or videotape.

“The Syrian president sat in the chair behind me ... we exchanged smiles and shook hands,” Katsav, who holds a largely ceremonial post as head of state, was quoted as telling the website of Israel’s Maariv newspaper.

The Iranian-born Katsav also said he spoke at the Vatican funeral in his native Farsi with Khatami about their common city of birth. Iran officially seeks Israel’s destruction.

“The president of Iran extended his hand to me, I shook it and told him in Farsi ‘may peace be upon you’,” Katsav told the website.

He said he later shook Assad’s hand a second time during the funeral, apparently when guests were urged to demonstrate a gesture of goodwill toward those around them.

“This time it was the Syrian president who held out his hand to me,” Katsav was quoted as saying.

‘HISTORIC ENCOUNTER’: “Historic encounter in Rome”, Israel’s largest-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth headlined in its website report on the meeting.

The Israeli and Syrian delegations had been seated next to each other. Their negotiators last held peace talks in 2000 which foundered over the future of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war.

Syria has called repeatedly for the talks to resume. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Syrian forces must first pull out of Lebanon and stop supporting Lebanese guerrillas and Palestinian militants before Israel would consider negotiations.

Katsav has tried before to carve out a role in restarting Israeli-Syrian contacts. In January 2004, he invited Assad to Jerusalem for talks, an offer Damascus dismissed as a propaganda stunt.

Israel has also accused Tehran of supporting anti-Israel militants and has been a fierce critic of Iran’s nuclear programme.

“It’s hard to tell the significance of a handshake,” the Israeli official said. “The question is whether there is going to be a change in these countries’ policy, which is to destroy the Jewish state.”

HISTORY: Here is a short list of some significant handshakes between world movers and shakers over the last 30 years.

Feb 1972 - President Richard Nixon makes the first visit of an American president to China, paving the way for formal diplomatic ties in 1979. Nixon shook hands with Premier Zhou Enlai, symbolically ending decades of hostility between China and the United States. March 26, 1979 - Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sign an Israel-Egypt peace treaty at the White House, the first between the Jewish state and an Arab country. Nov 19, 1985 - US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time at a summit in Geneva. They set a new tone, with the two men holding hours of private talks agreeing to accelerate negotiations on nuclear and space weapons.

Dec 13, 1989 - Black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela leaves jail temporarily to discuss political change with South African President F.W. de Klerk at his Cape Town presidential offices. Mandela was freed months later and became South Africa’s first black president in 1994.

Sept 13, 1993 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands after signing a peace agreement outlining plans for Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories.

July 25, 1994 - Israeli and Jordanian leaders make history with a first public handshake in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Jordan’s King Hussein shook hands enthusiastically at the White House in a powerful symbol of their intent to make a permanent peace.

Nov 30, 1995 - Visiting US President Bill Clinton and Gerry Adams, president of the IRA’s political wing Sinn Fein, shake hands in a Catholic heartland area of Belfast.

Mr Clinton walked over to Gerry Adams when he staged a quick walkabout. The two shook hands and exchanged a few words.

June 13, 2000 - The leaders of North Korea and South Korea, ending a 50-year standoff, meet for the first time and vow to work together to ease Cold War strains.

North Korea’s reclusive Kim Jong-il unexpectedly showed up in person at Sunan Airport to greet South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who said he was fulfilling a lifelong dream to become the first South Korean leader to set foot in the North.

The two men shook hands, courteously but with little obvious warmth.

Jan 5, 2002 - President Pervez Musharraf offers a hand of friendship to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at the Saarc summit in Kathmandu.

March 25, 2004 - Britain’s Tony Blair seals Libya’s return to the world community with a handshake with Muammar Qadhafi. —Reuters