MIDDLE EAST-PEACE: Israel Welcomes Syria's Call For Direct Talks

CAIRO, Nov 08 (IPS) - Israel Tuesday welcomed a Syrian call for direct peace negotiations, saying the move would speed up the peace process between the two countries.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokeswoman told IPS Israel was very happy about the call from Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa for direct negotiations but added she had no information yet about whether talks would take place at the foreign ministerial level.

Sources close to the Syrian government however told IPS that Sharaa and his Israeli counter-part, Shimon Peres, would lead the negotiations, most likely in Washington.

They would begin after U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited the region later this month, the sources added.

"We are expecting Mr Christopher here in the last week of November," a source said by telephone from Damascus. "After that talks will take place at the foreign ministerial level."

Israel and Syria broke off talks in Washington in February for lack of progress. Syria says the negotiations had gone as far as they could without an Israeli commitment to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights it occupies.

On Monday, Sharaa paid a surprise visit to Cairo to brief the Egyptian leadership on Syria's position regarding on the talks.

He said Christopher "might come up with something on the basis of which the talks in Washington would resume. There could be an agreement to resume the talks...on clear and sound principles".

An agreement would depend on how serious Israel was about making peace and how it responded to Syrian demands, he added. "We believe Syria has done everything it can to make the peace process succeed and the ball is now in Israel's court."

Israeli analysts said Christopher, who has shuttled endlessly between Jerusalem and Damascus as a mediator, was likely to tell the Syrians that Israel had committed itself to full withdrawal. He could even announce it publicly, they added.

"There is something going on," said Dan Schueftan, a lecturer in Israeli national security at Haifa University. "The political reality is that Israel has probably already committed itself to a full withdrawal and all they need to discuss now is how long the withdrawal will take, the security arrangements that will need to be put in place and any minute changes in the border."

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service