Statement Marking the Reopening of Israel-Syria Talks
(December 15, 1999)
In the White House ceremony marking the restarting of the Israel-Syria
talks (halted in March 1996), the Syrian Foreign Minister refused
to shake the hand of the Israeli Prime Minister. The opening remarks were
general in nature apart from the recitation of Syrian grievances by al-Shara.
The talks lasted two days and dealt with procedural matters and confidence-building
measures. Barak and al-Shara never met alone. They were always accompanied
either by President Clinton or the Secretary of State..
President Clinton: Good morning. It is an honor
to welcome Prime Minister
Barak, Foreign Minister Shara, and the members of the Israeli and Syrian delegations
here to the White House.
When the history of this century is written, some of its most illustrious
chapters will be the stories of men and women who put old rivalries
and conflicts behind them, and looked ahead to peace and reconciliation
for their children. What we are witnessing today is not yet peace, and
getting there will require bold thinking and hard choices. But today
is a big step along that path.
Prime Minister Barak and Foreign Minister Shara are about to begin
the highest-level meeting ever between their two countries. They are
prepared to get down to business. For the first time in history, there
is a chance of a comprehensive peace between Israel and Syrian, and
indeed, all its neighbors.
That Prime Minister Barak and Foreign Minister Shara chose to come
here to Washington reminds us of one other fact, of course, which is
the United States' own responsibility in this endeavor. Secretary Albright
and I, and our entire team, will do everything we possibly can to help
the parties succeed. For a comprehensive peace in the Middle East is
vital not only to the region, it is also vital to the world, and to
the security of the American people. For we have learned from experience
that tensions in the region can escalate, and the escalations can lead
into diplomatic, financial, and, ultimately, military involvement, far
more costly than even the costliest peace.
We should be clear, of course, the success of the enterprise we embark
upon today is not guaranteed. The road to peace is no easier, and in
many ways it is harder than the road to war. There will be challenges
along the way, but we have never had such an extraordinary opportunity
to reach a comprehensive settlement.
Prime Minister Barak, an exceptional hero in war, is now a determined
soldier for peace. He knows a negotiated peace, one that serves the
interests of all sides, is the only way to bring genuine security to
the people of Israel, to see that they are bound by a circle of peace.
President Assad, too,
has known the cost of war. From my discussion with him in recent months,
I am convinced he knows what a true peace could do to lift the lives
of his people and give them a better future. And Foreign Minister Shara
is an able representative of the President and the people of Syria.
Prime Minister Barak: We came here to put behind us the horrors
of war and to step forward toward peace. We are fully aware of the opportunity,
of the burden of responsibility, and of the seriousness, determination
and devotion that will be needed in order to begin this march, together
with our Syrian partners, to make a different Middle East where nations
are living side by side in peaceful relationship and in mutual respect
and good-neighborliness.
We are determined to do whatever we can to put an end and to bring
about the dreams of children and mothers all around the region to see
a better future of the Middle East at the entrance to the new millennium.
Foreign Minister Shara: Your announcement, Mr. President, was
warmly welcomed, both in Syria and in the Arab world, and its positive
echoes resonated in the world at large. That is because it promises,
for the first time, the dawn of a real hope to achieve an honorable
and just peace in the Middle East.
And as you have mentioned in your letter of October 12, 1999 to President
Assad, the issues have crystallized and difficulties defined. That is
why if these talks are to succeed as rapidly as we all desire, no one
should ignore what has been achieved until now, or what still needs
to be achieved.
It goes without saying that peace for Syria means the return of all
its occupied land; why, for Israel, peace will mean the end of the psychological
fear which the Israelis have been living in as a result of the existence
of occupation, which is undoubtedly the source of all adversities and
wars. Hence, ending occupation will be balanced for the first time by
eliminating the barrier of fear and anxieties, and exchanging it with
a true and mutual feeling of peace and security. Thus, the peace which
the parties are going to reach will be established on justice and international
legitimacy. And thus, peace will be the only triumphant, after 50 years
of struggle.
Those who reject to return the occupied territories to their original
owners in the framework of international legitimacy send a message to
the Arabs that the conflict between Israel and Arabs is a conflict of
existence in which bloodshed can never stop, and not a conflict about
borders which can be ended as soon as parties get their rights, as President
Assad has stressed at these meetings more than once before, and after Madrid peace conference.
We are approaching the moment of truth, as you have said, and there
is no doubt that everyone realizes that a peace agreement between Syria
and Israel, and between Lebanon and Israel, would indeed mean for our region the end of a history of
wars and conflicts, and may well usher in a dialogue of civilization
and an honorable competition in various domains - the political, cultural,
scientific, and economic.
Peace will certainly pose new questions to all sides, especially for
the Arab side, who will wonder after reviewing the past 50 years, whether
the Arab-Israeli conflict was the one who solely defied the Arab unity,
or the one which frustrated it.
During the last half-century, in particular, the vision
of the Arabs and their sufferings were totally ignored, due to the lack
of a media opportunity for them which conveys their points of view to
international opinion. And the last example of this is what we have
witnessing during the last four days of attempts to muster international
sympathy with the few thousand of settlers in the Golan, ignoring totally
more than half a million Syrian people who were uprooted from tens of
villages on the Golan,
where their forefathers lived for thousands of years and their villages
were totally wiped out from existence.
The image formulated in the minds of Western people
and which formulated in public opinion was that Syria was the aggressor,
and Syria was the one who shelled settlements from the Golan prior to the 1967 war.
These claims carry no grain of truth in them - as Moshe Dayan, himself,
has explained in his memoirs, that it was the other side who insisted
on provoking the Syrians until they clashed together and then claimed
that the Syrians are the aggressors.
Mr. President, the peace talks between Israel and Syria have been ongoing
for the last eight years, with off and on, of course. We hope that this
is going to be the last resumption of negotiations which will be concluded
with a peace agreement, a peace based on justice and comprehensivity;
an honorable peace for both sides that preserves rights, dignity and
sovereignty. Because only honorable and just peace will be embraced
by future generations, and it is the only peace that shall open new
horizons for totally new relations between peoples of the region.
President Assad has announced many years ago that peace is the strategic
option of Syria. And we hope that peace has become the strategic option
for others today, in order to have or to leave future generations a
region that is not torn with wars, a region whose sky is not polluted
by the smell of blood and destruction.
We all here agree that we are at a threshold of an historic opportunity,
an opportunity for the Arabs and Israelis alike, and for the United
States and the world at large. Therefore, we all have to be objective
and show a high sense of responsibility in order to achieve a just and
comprehensive peace, a peace that has been so long awaited by all the
peoples of our region and the world at large.
Sources: Israel Ministry
of Foreign Affairs |