U.S. Carries Israel’s Concerns to Syrians

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher met for five hours Sunday with President Hafez Assad, outlining new Israeli ideas for a peace settlement and urging the Syrian leader to help prevent skirmishes across the Israel-Lebanon border from torpedoing the delicate negotiations.

“I brought some thoughts from Prime Minister (Yitzhak) Rabin which I shared with the President,” Christopher said after the meeting, the longest he has held with Assad. “We discussed in some detail all of the elements to a possible solution.

“It is safe to say that we are laying the base for future progress,” he added.

Christopher said he relayed Israel’s call for Syria to use its influence with the militant Islamic organization Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to stop attacks on northern Israel and other acts of international terrorism. Skirmishes between Israeli and Hezbollah forces have been escalating since last week.

But after the meeting, Christopher indicated Assad offered very little of the help the Israelis want.

“It is common ground between us (Washington and Damascus) that only a comprehensive peace is the solution to the tensions in southern Lebanon,” he said.

Christopher flew to Damascus following talks in Jerusalem with Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Following his meeting with Christopher on Sunday morning, Peres said Israel urged the United States to pressure Syria to rein in Hezbollah, an organization that is thought to be controlled by Iran but which is also known to be influenced by Damascus.

“I believe both the prime minister and I have conveyed through Secretary Christopher a firm demand that the Lebanese and the Syrians take things into their own hands and stop this savagery,” he said.

U.S. officials said later that Peres was softer in his language in the meeting. In any event, Christopher clearly stopped short of passing along to Assad anything that could be called a “firm demand.”

Christopher meets today in the Jordanian port of Aqaba with Rabin and King Hussein to celebrate the agreement between Israel and Jordan to end hostilities and to open a border crossing between Aqaba and Eilat, Israel. Presumably, however, Christopher and Rabin will also review matters raised by Assad on Sunday.

Christopher may return to Damascus on Tuesday before heading home to Washington, although one senior official said that “we got about everything we could expect this time” from Assad. Another official said the secretary of state will probably return to the Middle East next month to resume his go-between role.

Although progress between Israel and Syria is painfully slow, Christopher said he is optimistic that the two sides will eventually reach an agreement.

Earlier, a senior Administration official said Israel and Syria have begun discussing concrete issues although they remain far apart. The official said U.S. mediation can narrow the gaps but that direct talks between the antagonists will be required to produce a settlement.

The official added that it is unlikely that Israel and Syria will reach the sort of “framework” pact that Israel has already signed with Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization because Assad “would want to have the details hammered out in advance, either completely or nearly completely,” before he agrees to sign anything.