Assad Is Ready to Talk Peace, Carter Says

Former President Jimmy Carter said Sunday that he believes Syrian leader Hafez Assad is ready to negotiate peace with Israel.

Speaking with reporters here, Carter said that after talking with the Syrian president last week, he feels that Assad is “ready to make peace, under the framework of an international conference.”

“President Assad has told me . . . that he would be very glad to have bilateral, direct talks with Israel to resolve all the differences, including the Golan Heights,” he said.

Carter met with Israeli Labor Party leader Shimon Peres, who told Parliament last week that he had “received information from an authoritative source that the Syrians are proposing peace negotiations, demilitarizing the Golan Heights.”

Asked by reporters if he believes that Assad would be ready to compromise on the Golan Heights, he replied, “I am not authorized to say, but I think he would negotiate in good faith.”

Israel captured the 450-square-mile Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed it in 1981. Israel has insisted that the strategic heights, which overlook the Sea of Galilee, are essential to its security.

Carter, now on a five-nation Middle East tour, told reporters after meeting with Israeli President Chaim Herzog:

“Once the international peace conference is convened, it would be rapidly adjourned, and then President Assad authorized me to say that he would be very glad to have bilateral talks to resolve the differences between Syria and this country, and that would obviously include the Golan Heights.”

Carter also met with caretaker Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of the right-wing Likud Party.

Carter said Assad did not ask him to pass a message to Israel but rather authorized him to propose the talks if questioned.