Syrian Terms
Syria’s Foreign Minister, Abdel Khaddam, announced terms yesterday for a disengagement agreement that Israel is certain to reject.
Mr. Khaddam, in a statement to the Saudi press and Governent radio, said: “Syria will accept military disengagement on the Golan Heights front only if it is made a part of a plan or a total Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories conquered both in the 1973 and 1967 wars.
“A disengagement by itself without an Israeli commitment or total withdrawal and an assurance of Palestinian rights is not acceptable to Syria under any circumstances.”
Israeli leaders have repeatedly made clear that Israel is going to retain permanently, some of the territory taken in 1967 because they feel it necessary to Israel’s security. One piece of territory they appear adamant about holding is the Golan Heights, from which Syrian batteries shelled Israeli settlements in northern Galilee until the Israelis captured them.
Al Anwar’s Riyadh correspondent said King Faisal had assured Mr. Assad that Saudi Arabia “will continue to support Syria whether by the presence of Saudi troops on the Syrian front or through the continuation of the oil embargo against the United States.”
The two chiefs of state also agreed to make the lifting of the oil embargo “dependent on Israeli commitment, either direct or through the United States, to accept Syrian terms for a military disengagement,” the report said.
