Syria Not Ruling Out Direct Arab-Israel Talks--Carter

Former President Jimmy Carter told Foreign Minister Shimon Peres today that Syria sees an international conference as the next step in the Middle East peace process but is not ruling out direct talks between Israel and the Arabs, an aide to Peres said.

Carter quoted Syrian President Hafez Assad as saying he understood an international conference “will serve as a basis for bilateral negotiations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ehud Gol. Carter did not say whether Syria was ready to be part of such talks.

The former President told reporters earlier today, when he crossed the Allenby Bridge from Jordan, that there was a need for greater flexibility in the Middle East peace process. He declined to talk to reporters after his 60-minute meeting with Peres in Jerusalem.

Carter was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin later today, the first day of a six-day visit to Israel.

Syria, Israel’s most formidable Arab enemy, traditionally has supported international talks with Soviet participation, but rarely has spoken on the question of direct Arab-Israeli talks.

Carter said Assad agreed that “Jordan would play a central role in an international conference” but he also saw a role for Syria, Gol said. He said Carter did not elaborate.

The former President also said he found Jordan’s King Hussein “eager to move the peace process forward but that he would be unable to enter talks without an international conference.”

Gol said Peres told Carter “there is no way to progress” without direct negotiations between Israel and the Arab states.

Israel’s multiparty coalition government is divided on the question of an international conference. Peres, head of the left-leaning Labor Party, agrees to such a forum as long as it does not preclude direct talks with Arab states.

Shamir of the right-wing Likud bloc opposes such a conference, claiming such a wide forum could put too much pressure on Israel to make territorial concessions.

The arrival in Israel of Carter, accompanied by his wife, Rosalynn, coincides with the eighth anniversary of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, signed March 26, 1979. It is the only treaty between Israel and an Arab country.