Syria OKs Hunt for Israeli MIAs : Mideast: An elated Christopher announces Assad’s ‘humanitarian gesture’ to improve the chilly peace talks atmosphere. Syrian Jews would also be free to emigrate.

In a gesture clearly intended to improve the atmosphere for Middle East peace talks, Syrian President Hafez Assad agreed Sunday to allow U.S. investigators to visit Syria and Lebanon to try to learn the fate of seven Israeli soldiers who are missing in action, some for more than a decade.

At the same time, Assad agreed to allow all remaining Syrian Jews, between 800 and 850 of them, to leave the country by the end of this month if they wish to do so.

An elated Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced the Syrian steps at a late-night news conference after a four-hour meeting with Assad.

Christopher said Assad did not request anything specific in return for his action. But U.S. officials said the steps are sure to strike a responsive chord in Israel, where public opinion seems to be turning against the peace process.

“I regard this as an independent humanitarian gesture of considerable importance,” Christopher said.

A senior Administration official in Christopher’s party said the MIA investigation will be handled by three staff members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said Chairman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) suggested the probe in September when Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh visited Washington. The matter has been a topic of diplomatic exchanges between Washington and Damascus ever since.

The official said Christopher raised the subject with Shareh on Sunday as the two rode from the airport to a downtown hotel. When Shareh indicated that Syria was receptive to the idea, Christopher requested--and got--final approval from Assad.

“We are dealing with something that we have worked on for a long time,” the official said. “It has enormous emotional importance in Israel. It is an effort to reach out at a human level.”

He said Assad promised to “facilitate” the investigation in both Syria and Lebanon, where Damascus is the main powerbroker. With Assad’s backing, the cooperation of local officials seems assured.

The MIAs include three soldiers lost in the Bekaa Valley in 1982 during Israel’s war in Lebanon. The other four, including the best-known, airman Ron Arad, have been in captivity since 1986. There has been recent evidence that Arad is still alive.

The fate of the others is less clear. But last week, the Palestine Liberation Organization handed over the military identification tags of one of the missing soldiers to a special envoy of Rabin at a meeting in Tunis, Tunisia. The PLO said it had confirmed that the soldier, Zacharia Bawmal, missing since a 1982 tank battle in eastern Lebanon, had been killed.

The decision to allow the departure of all remaining Syrian Jews is also calculated to have an emotional impact in Israel. Just a few years ago, there were 3,750 Jews in Syria, none of whom were allowed to emigrate. Israeli officials frequently referred to them as “hostages.”

In an earlier attempt to relax tensions, Syria granted exit visas to more than two-thirds of the total Jewish population, reducing it to about 1,200. Of that number, U.S. officials said, between 350 and 400 have received exit visas but have chosen not to use them. The remaining 800 to 850 have been denied permission to leave. But Assad now promises to let those individuals go by the end of this month if they want to leave.

U.S. officials said that almost all Syrian Jews have applied for exit visas, even if they have no intention of emigrating, as an insurance policy against a possible future government crackdown.

Christopher hit pay dirt on the second day of a weeklong Middle East shuttle intended primarily to restart the Israel-Syria talks over the future of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East War.

Prior to Christopher’s meeting with Assad, U.S. officials had cautioned reporters that very little information would be made public at this stage. They said the session was intended as a preliminary discussion after similar general talks that Christopher held Saturday night with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The officials said Christopher had hoped to start getting specific agreements Tuesday, when he returns to Jerusalem for a full day of talks with Rabin and other Israeli leaders, and Thursday, when he is scheduled to be back in Damascus for more meetings with Assad.

But with good news to announce, Christopher chose not to wait.

On the broader topic of Israel-Syria peace talks, which have been stalled for more than a year and seemed to break down completely last August, Christopher was much more reticent.

“I felt there is a strong desire on the part of President Assad to move ahead on the peace process,” Christopher said. “I had the same feeling (Saturday) night with Prime Minister Rabin.”

In addition to the Israel-Syria talks, Christopher hopes to help smooth relations between Israel and the Palestinians and the Jordanians. The secretary of state is scheduled to visit Amman today for separate talks with King Hussein and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

While waiting for his meeting with Assad, Christopher whipped through a 45-minute tour of the old part of Damascus, billed as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. His motorcade roared down a street that is usually limited to pedestrians in the city’s bazaar and stopped at the Umayyad mosque, built in the early 8th Century and one of Islam’s crown jewels.

“I am greatly honored to be here,” Christopher told the imam of the mosque. “I have heard about this mosque for years and years.”

Later, he told reporters: “This is one good thing about being secretary of state. You get to see things you only read about.”