Peres Ready to Meet with East Jerusalem Palestinians

Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor opposition in Israel, differs sharply from the Likud-led government on the key issue of Palestinian representation in peace talks.

He also believes President Hafez Assad of Syria is serious about negotiating directly with Israel for pragmatic reasons.

Palestinians “living or working in East Jerusalem” would be acceptable to the Labor Party as negotiating partners, Peres told the Paris weekly Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview published Sunday.

He rejected the Likud view that the presence of an East Jerusalem Palestinian at negotiations would compromise Israel’s claim to sovereignty over its own capital.

“If an American votes in Paris for the president of the United States, this doesn’t imply that Paris is or will become the capital city of the United States,” Peres said.

“The Palestinians of Jerusalem hold Jordanian passports and their participation in a Palestinian delegation would not predetermine the future of the city,” he said.

Asked if he thought Assad could be trusted, Peres said, “It is not a matter of sincerity but a matter of interest” for the Syrian leader to seek peace with Israel.

“I think that Assad understands fairly well that there is no more Soviet option in the Middle East, and that to choose war would introduce very complicated problems,” Peres said. “The cost of modern military technology is very high.”

Therefore, he said, to Syria no less than to Israel and other countries in the region, “peace has become an essential necessity. Strategic logic makes peace inevitable.”

Peres thought the Syrian change of attitude did not happen overnight but is “the result of processes started some time ago.

“I think it began with Syria’s participation in the coalition against Iraq. I think that Assad believes he can win over the United States, and has already had an important success,” Peres said.