Israeli-Syrian Peace Negotiations
Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations refer to ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving a long-standing conflict between Israel and Syria, primarily centered around the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War. The two nations have been in a technical state of war since Israel's independence in 1948. The most recent round of negotiations resumed in May 2008 in Istanbul, facilitated by Turkish diplomats, marking the first formal talks since 2000. Historical attempts at resolution have faced significant challenges, particularly regarding the Golan Heights and territorial disputes, as previous talks have faltered due to disagreements over land concessions and internal political shifts within both countries.
The negotiations are complicated by broader regional dynamics, including tensions with Iran and the influence of militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, which oppose Israel's existence. The political landscape in both Israel and Syria further adds layers of complexity; for instance, Syria's isolation from Western nations and Israel's internal opposition to relinquishing the Golan Heights complicate progress toward a comprehensive peace agreement. Despite several attempts, including secret talks in 2010, the situation remains fragile, with the ongoing Syrian Civil War and regional unrest posing significant obstacles to lasting peace.
Israeli-Syrian Peace Negotiations
Summary: On May 21, 2008, Israel and Syria acknowledged they had resumed long-postponed peace negotiations. The talks were held in Istanbul, with a Turkish diplomat shuttling between rooms in the same hotel. The talks, which both Syria and Israel said were aimed at a comprehensive peace treaty after almost precisely sixty years of a state of war between the two countries, were the latest in a series. Since 1967, the principal issue blocking a treaty has been Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights, captured in the Six-Day War and regarded by Israel as strategic. The previous round of talks, in 1999-2000, came close to reaching an agreement, but the two sides could not agree on a narrow strip of land adjacent to the Sea of Galilee that Israel refused to hand back to Syria. In September 2008, Syria announced the talks had been suspended in light of the political turmoil in Israel that saw Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign on September 21, 2008. The three-week Gaza War of 2008-2009 between Israel and the Gaza Strip conclusively ended Syria's participation in the talks. Again, in 2010, secret talks were begun by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this time brokered by the United States. However, these ended with the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, followed by the years-long Syrian Civil War.
In-Depth Description
On May 21, 2008, Israel and Syria announced they had resumed peace talks in Istanbul, with Turkish diplomats serving as intermediaries. Syrian and Israeli diplomats did not talk face-to-face but stayed in separate rooms in the same hotel.
The Istanbul talks were the first peace negotiations between the two nations since 2000. The previous talks failed to resolve the main issue separating the two: the return of the occupied Golan Heights to Syria.
In September 2008, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Syria had made a new set of specific proposals, which he did not detail. However, the negotiations were pending the outcome of a political crisis in Israel. Two weeks later, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had initiated the talks, resigned amid corruption charges. His designated successor, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, set about trying to assure that the Kadima Party coalition in the Knesset would be able to withstand Olmert's resignation.
While the issue of the Golan Heights poses a specific challenge for Israel and Syria, their peace talks took place in the larger context, particularly the growing tensions between Shiite Iran and Sunni-dominated states of the Arab League, which increasingly view Iran as replacing Israel as a perceived common enemy. In March 2008, the Arab League proposed talks that could lead to a permanent peace with Israel, conditioned on a return of Palestinian refugees; Israel initially rejected the proposal.
For Syria, the talks coincided with efforts to break out of diplomatic isolation imposed mainly by the United States, which regards Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism. For decades, Washington has objected to Syria's support for a long list of Palestinian terrorist organizations and its alliance with and support for Hezbollah, the Shiite militia in Lebanon responsible for continuing attacks on Israel, and Hamas, the Palestinian militia in Gaza which refuses to accept Israel's right to exist. From Israel's perspective, the peace initiative with Syria followed a frustrating breakdown toward negotiating a permanent "two-state solution" with the Palestinian Authority, which had become divided between the Fatah faction on the West Bank and the radical Hamas faction on the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which, like Hezbollah, is supported by both Syria and Iran, has long refused to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Israel and Syria have been in a technical state of war since Israel declared independence in May 1948. In 1974, the two countries agreed to a border after the October 1973 Yom Kippur War that then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had negotiated. That accord was not a formal peace treaty. The central sticking point has long been the status of the Golan Heights, an area claimed by Syria and occupied by Israel in 1967. Israel has since annexed the area, viewed as strategic since it could provide a hostile Syria base for artillery to shell Israeli settlements below.
The Israeli-Syria peace talks underscored the complex web of relationships in the region:
Golan Heights. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the rocky plateau overlooking northern Israel. The Golan Heights are regarded as strategic for two reasons: they overlook northern Israeli settlements, offering a launch pad for missile attacks, and they are adjacent to the Sea of Galilee, fed by the Jordan River that flows through the Heights, both important sources of water for Israel. Having captured the territory in 1967, Israel tried to annex the Golan Heights in 1981, a move not recognized by any other nation, including the United States. A further complication is the inclusion in Israeli-occupied territory of a narrow slice of land called Shab'a Farms, which is claimed by Lebanon and cited by Hezbollah as justification for not disarming its militia as other political parties did after the Lebanese Civil War of 1976-1991.
Golan Heights is occupied by about 25,000 Israelis living in more than forty settlements among about 20,000 Arabs. During the previous set of talks that ended in 2000, Israel had agreed to give up all but a narrow slice of territory adjacent to the Sea of Galilee. Syria would not agree to this exception, and those talks broke down.
Hezbollah. The Lebanese Shiite political party Hezbollah has long vowed to carry on war against Israel—it fought against an Israeli incursion into Lebanon in the summer of 2006 designed to stop a steady rocket barrage onto northern Israeli towns from Hezbollah-controlled territory—and refused to disarm its militia. In May 2008, the Hezbollah militia played a key role in expanding the party's power in the sectarian government of Lebanon. Hezbollah has long been an ally of Damascus and depends on overland deliveries of weapons and supplies from Iran that pass through Syria.
Iran. Since becoming an Islamic theocracy in 1979, Iran has long vowed to eliminate Israel. The Iranian government has provided funding and arms for Hezbollah in Lebanon and supported the Palestinian faction Hamas, which has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist as a precondition for peace talks. Iran has also provided support for Syria at a time when its government is isolated from other pro-Western countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia.
Palestinian Authority and Hamas. The militant Islamist Palestinian party Hamas, which effectively controls the Gaza Strip and has long refused to recognize Israel's right to exist, maintains a headquarters in Damascus, widely viewed as de facto Syrian support. Hamas also receives support from Iran. It is viewed as a significant impediment to peace talks between Israel and the other main Palestinian political party, Fatah, which controls the West Bank. Diplomatic observers believe a peace agreement with Syria could further isolate Hamas within the Arab world and possibly benefit Israel in its stalled negotiations with Fatah over details of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel's isolation of Gaza and the refusal of Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist has been an obstacle in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli negotiations initiated by President George W. Bush in Annapolis, MD, in November 2007.
Turkey. Turkey mediated the May 2008 negotiations between Israel and Syria. They followed a face-to-face meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2007. The negotiations paralleled another set of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that President George W. Bush sponsored and met initially in November 2007. Those talks made little progress in the following months. On the other hand, Turkey carved out an independent role for itself in 2003 when it refused to allow US forces to launch attacks on Iraq from Turkish territory. By thus standing up to the United States—a long-time military ally that maintains bases in Turkey—Ankara gained credibility among other countries in the region.
Syria's Nuclear Program. In September 2007, Israel bombed a facility in Syria, allegedly the site of a secret nuclear program. Syria protested the bombing but did not press the issue in the United Nations. Press reports quoted anonymous Israeli and American diplomatic sources saying North Korea had aided Syria in the program reminiscent of Iran's nuclear program. The existence of a Syrian nuclear development program—either for nuclear power or, eventually, for nuclear weapons—could have posed another significant barrier to a peace agreement.
Internal political issues. The peace negotiations are also affected by internal political problems that have no direct bearing on the issues under negotiation.
Jewish settlements. Polls in Israel indicate that two-thirds of the population oppose surrendering control of the Golan Heights to Syria. This issue is entwined with other Jewish settlements on the West Bank, claimed by the Palestinian Authority as its territory, and the strong resistance of more than 13,000 settlers to evacuating their homes in exchange for a peace treaty with either the Palestinian Authority or Syria.
Syrian President Bashar Assad lost regional influence since succeeding his father in July 2000 while also becoming isolated in the Arab world and simultaneously becoming more dependent on Iran. A peace agreement with Israel could clear the way to improved relations with the United States and other Arab states, for whom Iran has increasingly been viewed as a strategic threat, partly because Iran supported Shiite fundamentalist groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, the Syrian Civil War has imperiled Assad's entire regime, placing peace with Israel far down on his list of priorities.
Earlier Talks. The May 2008 negotiations in Ankara marked the first time in eight years that Israel and Syria engaged in formal peace talks. However, there may have been unofficial, informal discussions between a senior Israeli diplomat and a Syrian-American businessman between 2004 and 2006. The Israeli diplomat has insisted that he kept his government fully informed of the talks, which broke off at the onset of the Israeli-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006. The previous round was conducted under the auspices of the Clinton Administration and broke down over the details of the territory to be handed back to Syria. Announced by President Bill Clinton in May 1999, the earlier round of peace talks took place in Washington when Ehud Barak was Israel's prime minister.
Chronology of Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks
1948: Syria joins other Arab states attacking Israel upon its declaration of independence, initiating a state of war that has lasted sixty years in the case of Syria.
1967: Israel captures the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War. Five months later, United Nations Resolution 242 declares the principle of "land for peace," under which Israel would hand over land captured in the war in exchange for full diplomatic recognition. The resolution subsequently is interpreted differently by Israel, Arab states, and the United States.
1973: Syria briefly recaptures the area during the Yom Kippur War but later retreats.
1974: Israel and Syria agree on boundaries between them without signing a peace agreement. The borders reflect the transfer of the city of Quneitra on the Golan Heights to Syrian control.
1981: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin extends Israeli law to the Golan Heights to annex the territory. Israel's control over the area has never been recognized by any other nation.
1992: Israel and Syria begin negotiations in Washington on a document that would set forth principles for peace talks between the two countries. Then-Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin indicates Israel would be willing to give up control of part of the Golan Heights as part of a comprehensive peace agreement.
1994: A new round of Israeli-Syrian talks in Washington at the ambassadorial level focuses on details of a withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
December 1995-January 1996: Syria agrees to resume talks on Golan without preconditions.
1999: A new round of talks under the auspices of President Bill Clinton takes up where the earlier round left off in January 1996, focusing on a comprehensive peace agreement between the two states. These talks continue until 2000 but break down over a small strip of land adjacent to the Sea of Galilee that Israel would not hand back to Syria and that Syria insisted upon for an agreement.
2004-2006: According to the former director general of Israel's foreign minister, Alon Liel, he engages in informal talks with Syrian-American businessman Ibrahim Suleiman for two years, which ended in July 2006, on a possible peace agreement. Liel said in January 2008 that he had kept the government informed of the talks and that he thought Syria authorized Suleiman to conduct the talks.
2007: Israeli Prime minister meets privately with Turkish prime minister; the two agree that Turkey will act as a mediator to try to resume Syrian-Israel peace negotiations.
2008: May: The two sides announce their representatives are negotiating in Istanbul in talks mediated by Turkey. September: Syria announces the talks with Israel have been suspended in light of the Israeli internal political crisis that later saw Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign from office. His foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, was chosen by the Kadima Party to try to hold together the majority coalition in the Knesset.
2010: The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarks on another round of secret, US-brokered peace talks, again with the Golan Heights as the major issue and with an Israeli goal of trying to weaken the Syrian-Iranian alliance. These talks were cut short by the 2011 Arab Spring regional unrest, followed by the Syrian Civil War.
2011: The Syrian Civil War limits peace talks in the region through the 2010s and early 2020s, though several prisoner exchanges are conducted over this time.
2016: The enduring Syrian Civil War leaves hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians needing aid and basic life necessities on the Israeli border. Israel's Operation Good Neighbor deploys assistance for these individuals, but some raise concerns that Israel has an ulterior motive for these actions and is perhaps supporting rebel groups.
2022: Syrian air defenses shoot down several missiles in Damascus in May as Israel launches an attack from Golan Heights. Three people are killed.
2023: A 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the border of Turkey and Syria in February, humanitarian aid deploys from Israel.
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