Albright ‘Hopeful’ After Syria Talks

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that she was “much more hopeful” about an early resumption of the long-stalled Israeli-Syrian peace talks after a three-hour meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad.

This morning, she is to relay Assad’s comments to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who tried to reassure the Palestinians on Tuesday by saying that Israel will not launch new settlement projects before a final Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is signed. Barak stopped short of agreeing to freeze construction that is underway.

Although Albright steadfastly refused to supply any details of her meeting with Assad, saying that to do so would only make an agreement more difficult, she sounded the most optimistic note about relations between Syria and Israel since a marathon round of negotiations broke down in the spring of 1996. Representatives of the two antagonists have not met face to face since then.

Albright said that after breakfast today with Barak she would report the comments of both Assad and Barak to President Clinton, who “will make a decision on the next step.”

Although neither Albright nor her chief aides would say more about Clinton’s role, her remarks were a strong hint that the president plans to personally mediate the region’s most intractable dispute.

The secretary of State said her discussion with Assad focused on four key issues: the extent of withdrawal by Israel from the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War; the nature of a peace between the countries, such as whether they would exchange ambassadors; security guarantees; and a timetable for implementation of any agreement.

Although she refused to say more, a senior State Department official said Albright got “helpful clarifications [of Syria’s positions] on a number of important subjects.”

Asked if the clarifications would come as a pleasant surprise to Barak, the official said the Syrian position was “new to us.”

Albright flew to Israel after the talks in Damascus, the Syrian capital, for meetings with Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

With Palestinian negotiators threatening to break off key talks on a final Israeli-Palestinian peace unless Israel stops building Jewish settlements in the West Bank, she had faced the bleak prospect of trying to cajole the Israelis and Palestinians into resuming negotiations that were promised months ago. But after the Damascus meeting, Albright will be discussing both the Syrian and Palestinian tracks when she confers with Barak.

Albright and her aides insisted, however, that the Syrian track is too fragile to withstand much public scrutiny.

“Discussions about negotiations are very much like mushrooms: They do much better when they are not in the light,” she said. When a reporter again tried a substantive question, she snapped a one-word reply: “Mushrooms.”

For months, Assad has been sending signals through European and Arab intermediaries that he was ready to deal but only if Israel agreed in advance to withdraw from all of the strategic Golan Heights.

The Syrian president has insisted that Israel must acknowledge that the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed during the last round of direct talks to a complete pullout from the Golan. Barak has responded that, if Syria liked the deal Rabin offered, it should have grabbed it and signed a treaty. Because that did not happen, Israeli officials have argued that the Syrians can assume nothing based on the previous negotiations.

It is unlikely that Assad agreed to soften his demand for all of the territory Syria lost on the battlefield. But a European diplomat stationed in Damascus said Assad has indicated to recent visitors that he might be flexible on such other issues as water rights--always a key question in the arid Middle East--and Israel’s demand for Syrian guarantees that the Golan would not be used as a base for attacks on Israel if it reverted to Syrian control.

Referring to Assad’s negotiating strategy, the diplomat said, “He’ll be very hard-nosed, but there is a deal to be done.”

Albright also got a bit of good news on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as she arrived in Jerusalem.

Barak said Israel will not initiate settlement construction before a final agreement is signed, though he did not say that projects underway would be frozen. Israeli officials have insisted that some building in the settlements is necessary to accommodate natural growth in the communities.

“It makes no sense, especially now, to initiate, to launch major new projects when it is clear that they create tensions that disturb Israel’s [relations] with the world,” Barak told reporters. He predicted that the problem with the Palestinians would be resolved within a few days and the negotiations resumed.

Besides, the Israeli leader noted, “any new house that is only now beginning construction will not be finished before the end of 2001, and we face a hard diplomatic struggle over the next three months, so wisdom is necessary.”

The Palestinian response was muted, with one senior official saying Barak’s statements were not enough to induce the negotiators to return to the bargaining table.

But Jewish settler leaders, who have been relatively pleased with Barak’s policies since he took office in July, immediately expressed concern about the comments. They said they would seek clarification that settlements can continue to grow.

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Times staff writer Rebecca Trounson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.