Peres Unveils 10-point Plan for New Approach to Syria Talks

Prime Minister Shimon Peres has unveiled a 10-point plan that will serve as the framework for the renewed negotiations between Israel and Syria, which are scheduled to begin next week.

Peres also denied reports that he had submitted any documents or maps that outlined the scope of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the Syrians or Americans.

At a meeting of the Labor Party caucus Monday, Peres outlined the 10-point plan as follows: * No preconditions will be set by either side. * The aims of the talks, and not their manner, are important. Peres said he would have preferred to have renewed the talks with a summit between himself and Syrian President Hafez Assad, but it was not essential. * The content of the negotiations would influence their length and results. * A differentiation was drawn between issues that are points of contention and those that require resolution. Peres said the border was a point of contention, while security arrangements and water issues required resolution. * Negotiations are to be conducted on all subjects. * A peace accord between Syria and Israel would be an opportunity to end war in the region. * Ways should be sought to turn the Golan Heights into a center for economic cooperation, and not military buildup. * The United States would be called on to play a central role. * Quiet on Israel’s border with Lebanon is a goal. * Negotiations will be less formal and more practical.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher officially announced the resumption of Israeli-Syrian negotiations at a news conference with Peres on Saturday night in Jerusalem.

Christopher, who made the announcement after two days of talks in the Israeli and Syrian capitals, pledged that the United States would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel as it seeks peace with Syria.

Peres told the gathering of reporters that Israel would move “as fast as we can” in the negotiations with Syria.

Peres described the talks, which were broken off six months ago in a dispute over future security arrangements on the Golan, as “a new beginning” in the long-fruitless discussions with Damascus.

Christopher reiterated the United States’ commitment to the peace process, adding that if asked to do so, the United States would try to come up with proposals to help bridge differences between the two sides.

Likud Party head Benjamin Netanyahu, leading the criticism of the announced resumption of Israeli-Syrian talks, rejected reports that both sides had agreed to return to the bargaining table without any preconditions.

“My information is that Mr. Peres has passed on to Syria a full Israeli willingness to accept Syrian sovereignty over the entire Golan Heights,” he told Israel Radio on Sunday.

Under a new framework for the talks, the negotiating teams will address a broad number of issues simultaneously, rather than focus first on security arrangements, which the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had stressed.

Peres told a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that despite the changed structure, he had shifted the approach, but not the positions, adopted by Rabin.

Peres was quoted as saying that he had spoken to Rabin about the need to open up the talks, if the impasse was to be overcome.

“The security talks had run aground,” Peres was quoted as saying. “I did not hide my opinion from Rabin that we ought to try a different direction.”

The talks are scheduled to begin Dec. 27 for three days at a site near Washington, recess for a week and then resume for another three days during the first week in January.

After that, Christopher told reporters, he will return to the Middle East in mid-January for another round of talks with Peres and Assad.

The Israeli team is expected to include Israel Foreign Ministry Director General Uri Savir, Gens. Uzi Dayan and Danny Yatom, Foreign Ministry legal adviser Yoel Zinger and Finance Ministry Director General David Brodet.

The Syrian team was expected to include the country’s ambassador to the United States, Walid Muallem, along with other officials.

Political sources said the Israeli delegation already had a number of position papers on the elements of an agreement with Syria that address issues of economic cooperation, including regional development projects.

The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that despite the freeze in talks since June, the army’s strategic planning branch had continued work on security issues.

A security source was quoted as saying, “We are ready to renew the security talks at any time.”