Syria is still committed to concluding a Mideast peace agreement if Israel withdraws from the Golan Heights to positions it held before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Syria’s Vice-President Abdel Halim Khaddam said Monday.
“Syria is holding on to the peace process as a strategic option, if the adequate circumstances to achieve this option are available,” Khaddam said at a meeting of the ruling Syrian Baath Party’s political committee.
He said a just and global peace in the Middle East could be achieved “if Israel responds to Syria’s demands which were defined by late President Hafez Assad.”
He reiterated that such a peace should be based on the land-for-peace principle and Israel’s withdrawal from the Golan Heights up to the June 4, 1967 line. Khaddam’s peace comments were the first by a Syrian official since the sudden death of President Assad last week in Damascus.
Syrian-Israeli peace talks were suspended last January — nearly two weeks after they resumed in Washington — following differences between the two sides over the extent of pullout from the Golan, the strategic plateau captured by Israel during the conflict, and held until the present day.
Khaddam has been running the country’s affairs since Assad died, but President Assad’s son, Bashar, is expected to be voted into office as his father’s successor by the Syrian parliament. Late Monday, the Baath party conference, convening for the first time in 15 years, unanimously named Bashar “commander of the party, the march and people,” a title his late father had held since 1971.The Party also extended its meetings until Tuesday when it will conclude with the expected nomination of Bashar Assad as its secretary-general.
Khaddam warned that “the Arab situation is worrisome because of antagonistic policies that serve Israel’s interests at the expense of Arab interests,” and said it was thus important to “strengthen Syria to push away the dangers and consolidate its relations with international organizations and countries on the basis on mutual respect ant joint interest.”
