Turkey PM in Syria on peace mission
Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits Damascus to discuss reopening talks with Israel.
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said that Turkey has been playing a mediation role since the Justice and Development (AK) party came to power four years ago.
“I think some in Washington and Tel Aviv are interested in such a Turkish role, and certainly Syria is pleased that its northern neighbour – the one that it had animosity with for many, many decades – is now friendly … and would like to mediate a possible agreement,” he said.
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Damascus has denied claims that Israel hit a Syrian nuclear installation developed using North Korean technology.
Earlier this week, Buthaina Shaaban, Syria’s minister for expatriate affairs, had confirmed that the Israeli talks offer was put forward through Erdogan.
Mike Hanna, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Jerusalem, said that it had been common knowledge that third-party contacts had been under way for the past few months.
“The fact that Turkey is making [the contacts] public is perhaps representative of Syrian wishes. Syria has made increasingly clear in recent days that it wants any such negotiations to be conducted in public.”
Peace negotiations between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 over disagreement of the extent Israel would pull out of the Golan Heights.
Golan demands
“Syria insists on the principle that Israel must return all territory occupied by force and that the question of water would then be settled by other means,” Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara said.
However, Israel would face difficulties convincing the public to accept any deal with Syria.
A recent opinion poll published in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper said that more than two-thirds of Israelis opposed a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights and 51 per cent rejected a partial withdrawal.
The survey also reported that 74 per cent of Israelis “did not believe Assad was serious” about a peace deal.