Israeli, Syrian citizens drafted secret peace plans

Greg Myre / Agencies / Jan 18, 2007, 21:03 IST

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Citizens from Israel and Syria planned for returning the Golan Heights to Syria and offer a possible outline for peace negotiations.

Israeli, Syrian citizens drafted secret peace plans

JERUSALEM: Prominent private citizens from Israel and Syria drafted a document in secret, unofficial talks that calls for returning the Golan Heights to Syria and offer a possible outline for peace negotiations, one of the participants said on Tuesday.
However, the Israeli and Syrian governments dismissed the document, which was first described on Tuesday in the Israeli daily Haaretz.They said they were not involved in the talks, which included sessions from September 2004 to July 2006 at undisclosed sites in Europe.
"No one in the government was involved in this matter," PM Ehud Olmert of Israel said. "It was a private initiative." In Syria, Bushra Kanafani, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told the Arab satellite network Al Jazeera that the Israeli report was "mere fabrication and a test balloon."
Israel and Syria last held formal peace talks in 2000, when they appeared close to a deal to return most or all of the Golan Heights to Syria. But the negotiations broke down, and the two countries routinely trade recriminations.

Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it. Today, about 20,000 Israelis live in the Golan Heights, a sparsely populated region that includes farms, vineyards and tourist sites. It is considered to have strategic military value, rising far above both northern Israel and southern Syria.
With formal diplomatic efforts stalled in 2004, Alon Liel, a former director general of Israel's foreign Ministry, quietly began unofficial talks with Ibrahim Suleiman, a Syrian businessman living near Washington.
Turkey helped to arrange initial contact, and an unidentified European mediator was involved in the talks throughout.
NYT news service

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