Israel Matzav

Lieberman happy to talk to Syria, but without pre-conditions

After being lambasted in the media over the weekend for an interview with an Austrian newspaper in which he said that Syria is 'not a peace partner,' Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio this morning that he is happy to talk to Syria but without pre-conditions (this is not online yet, and I'm citing what I heard on the radio this morning).

Lieberman said that while he is happy to talk to Syria, there is not much point in doing so when the Syrians say "first agree to go back to the 1967 borders and then we will discuss everything else." Says Lieberman (correctly), "if we agree to go back to the 1967 borders, there is not much else to talk about." Lieberman also noted a continued Syrian threat that if Israel does not give it the Golan, it will take the Golan by force. The JPost article linked above, for example, quotes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as having told the Qatari newspaper al-Sharq:

"The day must come and we will liberate (the Golan Heights) by peace or war," Assad was quoted as saying. "When a citizen loses hope, he walks toward 'the resistance' in one way or another… Hizbullah has an issue with the Israeli enemy and we have the same issue, and as a result we support it."

Said Lieberman, "we will not bow to Syrian ultimatums."

It's too bad that now that Israel has a leadership that has some you-know-what, the Americans seem to have lost it. If this Israeli government had been in power from 2002-04, things might have turned out differently.

So why do people think he's so unreasonable? Would any other nation allow itself to be cowed by an enemy like the World expects us to be cowed by the Syrians? Especially considering that we won both wars.

UPDATE 10:28 AM

JPost now has Lieberman's interview from Sunday morning here.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday toned down previous statements regarding peace prospects with Syria, telling Israel Radio he would be willing to immediately hold peace talks with Syria, but only without preconditions.

...

"I'd be glad to negotiate with Syria this evening, but without preconditions," Lieberman said in the Sunday interview to Israel Radio.

"They say, first go back to '67 lines and give up the Golan. If we agree to that, what is there to negotiate?" he said.

...

Lieberman also denied in his Sunday interview with Israel Radio the London-based Arabic-language Al-Hayat report, according to which he told Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that he would agree to a two-state solution with the Palestinians. The foreign minister also wouldn't confirm in his interview with Israel Radio whether Suleiman had indeed invited him to visit Egypt.

According to the newspaper's report published Saturday, Suleiman had called Lieberman "very moderate" following last week's meeting with the Israeli minister, who told Suleiman that a two-state solution with the Palestinians was the only way to achieve peace and security in the region, according to Al-Hayat.

The report quoted a "reliable" but unnamed Egyptian official.

The meeting between Lieberman and Suleiman took place during a series of meetings Suleiman held with Israeli leaders last week, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The official quoted by Al-Hayat said the meeting between the two was successful and achieved its objective.

Now let's hope Netanyahu and Lieberman don't back off.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:07 AM