ISRAELI FOREIGN minister Avigdor Lieberman says he favours renewing peace talks with Syria but only if Damascus agrees to drop preconditions.
The statement yesterday from the leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party appeared to contradict weekend interviews with European newspapers in which the controversial minister indicated that Syrian support for armed Palestinian and Lebanese groups meant Israel could not consider Damascus as a peace partner.
In an interview with Israel Radio, Mr Lieberman said he would hold negotiations immediately “without preconditions and ultimatums” allowing both sides to put their demands on the table. “They say, first go back to the 1967 lines and give up the Golan Heights. If we agree to that, what is there to negotiate?”
Indirect talks between Syria and Israel via Turkish mediators ended last year without an agreement.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had indicated the sides were close to a land-for-peace deal involving Israel relinquishing control of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day Arab-Israeli war.
Mr Lieberman, however, rejected the Syrian position that the talks should resume from the point at which they were broken off. “Syria may want sovereignty on the Golan while we ask for a 200-year lease,” the foreign minister said. “They can demand the Golan in exchange for peace, while we will demand peace for peace.”
Defence minister Ehud Barak, who, as head of the Labor Party represents the left-wing flank of Binyamin Netanyahu’s government, said Israel’s national interest demanded negotiations with Syria. “Israel has an interest in normalising its relations with Syria while protecting its vital interest. Negotiations with Syria should always be part of the Israeli government’s agenda.”
Labor colleague Yuli Tamir accused Mr Lieberman of dragging Israel into dangerous regional conflicts and holding the Netanyahu government hostage.
“Within one month as foreign minister, Lieberman has managed to create a crisis with the EU, US and Egypt, and now he is heating the atmosphere with Syria,” Mr Tamir told army radio.
The new Israeli government is undertaking a policy review in an attempt to draw up a comprehensive strategy on both the Syrian and Palestinian tracks ahead of next month’s scheduled White House meeting between President Barack Obama and Mr Netanyahu.
During the election campaign Mr Netanyahu visited the Golan Heights and vowed that as prime minister, he would never hand back the area.