French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas held a brief, previously unannounced meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad on Monday, reportedly at Israel’s request.
The meeting, which took place in Damascus, followed unusually extensive talks Dumas held last week in Paris with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
While in the Syrian capital, Dumas also met with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said Tuesday that Dumas had transmitted no messages from Israel during his visit to the Syrian capital.
Peres, for his part, confirmed that he had discussed Syria and its role in the peace process at the Paris talks, but said he asked the French government to undertake no special action.
In a radio interview Tuesday, Dumas said, “I think there exists on the Syrian side as well as on the Israeli side a desire for peace that has not been expressed in such a way until now.
“You heard Mr. Peres in Paris, and Israeli leaders, call on France to play a role in (the Middle East) conflict. It’s true that today new things are happening in the peace process. Everywhere that France can be useful it will try to be,” the French foreign minister told Europe 1 radio.
The French initiative was approved by President Francois Mitterrand, to whom Dumas was due to report. The French president is recovering in a Paris hospital from a bladder operation.
Peres’ meeting with his French counterpart last week, which had been scheduled for one hour, stretched out to over two. With little time lost for translation – Peres is fluent in French – it is believed the two may have mapped out what Dumas was to say in Syria.
Dumas declined to elaborate on his message to Assad. But he said Israel’s will to reach a peace agreement with Syria was now matched on the other side.
He cautioned that “all this will take a very long time.”
Assad reportedly said there are many difficulties on the road to peace but that those problems “can be examined.”
The French minister is to leave next week for a visit to Saudi Arabia.
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