On a Secluded Plantation, Syria and Israel Talk Peace

Israel and Syria made a fresh start Wednesday at negotiating an end to nearly half a century of enmity, dining and working on peace terms in seclusion in eastern Maryland.

“Everything is on the agenda,” an Israeli diplomat said after the talks opened with lunch and then discussion at the Wye Plantation overlooking Chesapeake Bay. The negotiators, wearing casual clothes, sat around a mahogany table with a bowl of white tulips in the middle.

The Clinton administration is taking an active role, participating in all sessions as the two Middle Eastern countries explore what kind of peace Israel could get if it gives up the strategic Golan Heights.

“Our objective here is to try to provide them with a setting in which they can exercise as much flexibility as they need,” said Glyn Davies, a State Department spokesman.

Wye Plantation, a 26-room Georgian mansion, will house the Israeli and Syrian delegations until Friday and again next week. Secretary of State Warren Christopher then plans to take over the U.S. mediation with a shuttle trip to Damascus and Jerusalem.

At stake are the future of the Golan Heights, a strategic border enclave, and the prospect of relations between the two countries that have fought three major wars since Israel’s founding in 1948.

The United States is likely to provide surveillance equipment that would be installed at the border to guard against surprise attack.

Syria, which is on the State Department’s list of countries that support terrorism, is barred from most forms of U.S. assistance. Its status is under review.