Dumas Visit to Mideast Capitals Keeps Speculation of Summit Alive

Continued Israeli speculation about an Israeli-Syrian summit meeting accompanied a weekend shuttle visit to the capitals of Syria, Egypt and Israel by French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas.

Dumas met separately with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday afternoon during a half-day visit to Jerusalem. He flew in from Cairo after a meeting in Damascus on Saturday with President Hafez Assad.

Peres had just returned from Brussels, where he was quoted as saying that a summit meeting is now inevitable, “because there is no alternative.”

“My impression is that we are now in a waiting room. We have to go to a higher stage and organize a high-level Israeli-Syrian meeting,” he told journalists in the Belgian capital Friday.

“Face-to-face encounters often end back to back,” Peres said. “But the only way to achieve peace is a meeting between those who are taking the decisions.”

Here in Jerusalem, the French foreign minister refused to speculate about the prospects of a high-level meeting between Israel and Syria.

But even before his jet touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport, there were reports that Dumas had been involved in an effort to arrange a face-to-face meeting in New York between Peres and his Syrian counterpart, Farouk al-Sharaa. The two foreign ministers were there attending the U.N. General Assembly’s opening session.

SYRIAN WILLINGNESS REPORTED

According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Hadashot, which was denied by Peres’ aides, the meeting fell through after Prime Minister Rabin made a public statement pooh-poohing a previous trip Dumas had made to Damascus after meeting in Paris with Peres.

Hadashot said Rabin’s remark had caused the Syrians to believe Israel did not want the meeting, even though it had been approved by Assad.

Rabin told Labor Party colleagues last week that a summit meeting could only come after substantive gaps between the two countries had been narrowed.

Syrian officials have also brushed aside the idea of a Sharaa-Peres or Assad-Rabin meeting at this time. Sharaa himself said last week that such a meeting would “undermine” the bilateral peace talks in Washington, which are due to resume Oct. 21.

But according to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, Syria has, in fact, indicated its willingness to hold a summit, on condition that Israel agree to evacuate all of the Golan Heights eventually, the Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported Friday.

A message by Damascus that it is willing to establish full peace with Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the northern plateau was conveyed by the foreign minister of Syria to his Israeli counterpart through the agency of the foreign minister of a Western European state, the report said.

As far as is known this is the first message to be relayed between Sharaa and Peres, and the first Syrian hint at the possibility of a meeting between Rabin and Assad.

It also marks a first in implying that Damascus does not insist on immediate full-scale Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.

Senior Israeli sources say “many signs” indicate the Syrians would agree to spreading out an Israeli withdrawal for up to 10 years, according to the report.

Cabinet ministers emerging from their weekly meeting Sunday said Israel is ready to negotiate territorial compromise on the Golan once Syria makes clear its position on the nature of the peace it envisages.

“We’re ready to talk substance once we hear clarity from them,” Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told reporters.

SYRIA URGED TO JOIN MULTILATERALS

Foreign Minister Peres, meanwhile, has called on the Syrians to end their boycott of the multilateral talks on Middle East regional issues, which have been taking place in various world capitals.

He issued that call after meeting with Dumas. The visiting foreign minister, for his part, announced that French President Francois Mitterrand will travel to Israel in late November, following a visit to Paris later this month by Israeli President Chaim Herzog.

During the Cabinet session Sunday, Peres reported on his meetings in New York with other world leaders attending the U.N. General Assembly and on his talks in Brussels late last week with European Community officials.

At Rabin’s suggestion, Acting Cabinet Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein, who served in this post under the previous government, was asked to stay on for a second three-month term.

Rabin met Friday with his predecessor, Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir, to hear about the former prime minister’s recent visit to Russia and Belarus. He also briefed Shamir, who is the current Knesset opposition leader, on the peace process.

Rabin was due as well to meet Monday with a delegation of Likud leaders, including two contenders for the party’s top leadership post, Ariel Sharon and Moshe Katsav.

(Contributing to this report were JTA correspondents Joseph Kopel in Brussels and Hugh Orgel in Tel Aviv.)Because of Yom Kippur, the JTA Daily News Bulletin will not be published Thursday, Oct. 8.