Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze’s visit to Syria this weekend is expected to highlight differences between Soviet and Syrian attitudes toward peace negotiations with Israel, Bush administration officials said Wednesday.
Syria is the first stop on Shevardnadze’s 10-day tour of the Middle East, beginning Friday. It is the first by a Soviet foreign minister in close to 10 years, and will also include stops in Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Iran, Soviet Embassy spokesman Boris Malakhov said.
Israel is not on the itinerary, as it has not been for top Soviet officials since the Kremlin severed full ties in 1967.
The trip is apparently long overdue, and may be timed to get a head start on the Bush administration in regional diplomacy.
According to one administration official, Syria wants Israel to return the Golan Heights as part of a regional peace settlement, and not in direct Syrian-Israeli negotiations, one official said.
By contrast, the Soviets may be more willing than the Syrians to support an international peace conference allowing for direct negotiations, the official said. As a result, Syria fears being isolated by a more flexible Soviet negotiating stance.
In addition, there has been a recent shake-up in relations between the two countries with the assignment of a new Soviet ambassador to Damascus, Aleksandr Zotov.
Zotov, who had been part of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s Middle East policy team, presented his credentials to President Hafez Assad this week. His assignment may signal new flexibility in the Soviet position.
A second administration source said the Syrian “rejectionist front is chipping away, as the Iraqis are apparently taking a moderate stand in line with Jordan and Egypt.”
NO DRAMATIC EFFECTS
Shevardnadze has said he will carry “new ideas” with him on his Middle East swing. But he does not expect any “dramatic effects,” Tass reported Wednesday.
The new ideas for promoting peace, the Soviet news agency quoted Shevardnadze as saying, are “intended for the near and more remote perspective.”
But according to the second administration source, Shevardnadze “has not shared details” of his new ideas with the administration.
Saudi Arabia is also not on Shevardnadze’s itinerary, apparently because they do not have full diplomatic relations with the Soviets.
Curiously absent as well are visits to various Persian Gulf states with whom relations were recently restored, including the United Arab Emirates.
Besides paying “due attention” to improving relations with the five countries, Shevardnadze told Tass he hopes to work toward a “lasting peace for the benefit of the peoples in the Near and Middle East.
“Of course, the nature of these conflicts is such that no dramatic effects can be expected in the course of the 10-day visit,” Shevardnadze said. “But nonetheless, we are convinced that it is time for more vigorous actions.”
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