Global Arab Network | Syria: Israel is a major obstacle to peace in the region

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Syria: Israel is a major obstacle to peace in the region

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has branded the Israeli government as a "major obstacle" to peacemaking in the Middle East.

He made the comments during a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Damascus on Saturday.

"For Syria and for all Arabs, peace is a strategic goal that we will achieve one day," al-Assad told at least 50 foreign ministers attending the meeting in the Syrian capital.

"Peace must include the regaining of Arab territories held by Israel."

He also expressed the need to remain alert about Israeli motivations.

He said Arabs need to ask the right question, namely: Is it possible for a state "that was founded on the illegitimate basis of occupation and the killing of Palestinians and Lebanese over decades - is it possible for it to be seriously pursuing peace?

Syria and Israel have been divided over Israel's decision not to return the Golan Heights, a strategically important region that was Syrian territory before Israel captured it during the 1967 Six Day War.

The plateau, which was annexed in 1981, holds historical importance to Syria but also has practical importance for Israel as it provides the country with at least 15 per cent of its water supply.

Israel and Syria held almost 10 years of US-supervised talks that collapsed in 2000 when Hafez al-Assad, the late Syrian president and father of Bashar, refused an Israeli offer to pull out of the Golan but keep several hundred metres on the northeastern shore of the lake.

In his speech on Saturday, al-Assad said: "Our past experience of indirect talks with Israel - the last ones through Turkey - have given us, once again, proof that when political action fails, it is legitimate to resort to resistance in order to regain our rights."

The Turkish-mediated talks were suspended in December 2008 as Israel began its military assault on the Gaza Strip.

Recently Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, pointed out that Ankara was ready to continue as a mediator.

Diplomats in Damascus said Gul has been urging al-Assad and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to resume the talks.

Al-Assad underlined he was waiting for an Israeli response to Syria's definition of what constitutes the Golan boundary, which would have set the benchmark for any Israeli withdrawal.

Netanyahu said he was ready to resume the talks with Syria immediately. But he has also indicated that he would not make any commitments on land first.

The OIC foreign ministers gathered in Damascus for a brain storm to discuss the agenda which includes the Middle East peace process, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, combating Islamophobia, terrorism, racial disputes among Muslims in a number of countries and a review of new charter for the organization which originally saw light in 1969 in Morocco.

The Ministers were also expected to examine during the 3-day conference a conceptual paper on its future role in maintaining peace, security and resolving conflicts in the Member States. The paper sets out from the premise that the Muslim world needs to have peacekeeping troops, as myriad conflicts are waged within Muslim territories.

The OIC, which is headed by its incumbent Secretary General Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, is an international organization with a permanent delegation at the United Nations. It groups 57 member states, from the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus region, the Balkans, Southeast Asia, South Asia and South America.

The Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers meets once a year to examine a progress report on the implementation of its decisions taken within the framework of policy defined by the Islamic Summit.

(CBS News, FOXNews, AFP, AP, Reuters, Aljazeera)

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