Syria Can Ease Path to Peace

Syria’s hospitality to radical organizations of the Middle East has long guaranteed it a top spot on the State Department’s list of countries that sponsor or engage in terrorism. Despite denials that it abets terrorists, Damascus is the haven for a collection of Palestinian factions, ranging from Marxist to militantly Islamic, that reject peace with Israel and justify bombings and similar violence as necessary weapons in their armed struggle. Now, according to sources in some of these organizations, Syria has told them it’s time to give up militancy and reorient themselves to a more normal kind of politics.

The report has the ring of credibility, although a spokesman for the alliance of Palestinian groups in Syria rushed to claim it was untrue.

The change in government that followed Israel’s elections in May has given rise to a marked shift in tone from Damascus. President Hafez Assad and his subordinates have signaled in a number of ways Syria’s interest in resuming serious peace negotiations with Israel, broken off three years ago after five years of intermittent but not unproductive talks. And Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak has announced he is eager to seek a comprehensive settlement that would normalize Israel’s relations with Syria and Lebanon as well the Palestinians. The opportunity to end half a century of conflict thus may be at hand. In these circumstances it seems clear that Syria would want to rein in its resident Palestinian radicals.

Assad has held power in what is de facto a one-party state since 1971. He is 69 and, like Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in deteriorating health. He hopes to pass the presidency on to a son, and he would like that inheritance to include a regained Golan Heights, the strategically important plateau lost by Syria after it attacked Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. This is the central territorial issue between Syria and Israel. Damascus seeks a settlement that would give it sovereignty over its lost land. Jerusalem demands one that would assure the Golan never again poses a security threat to Israel.

The State Department has welcomed but not confirmed the report that Syria has told the Palestinian rejectionists its interest in talks with Israel outweighs its interest in continuing to support their cause. But the place to watch for sharper evidence of Syria’s intentions is more likely to be Lebanon, where the Iranian-supported Hezbollah promises to go on fighting Israel no matter what others do. Syria, with 30,000 troops and a huge intelligence operation in Lebanon, is in a position to crimp the flow of money and arms from Iran to Hezbollah. Barak is eager to pull all Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon, but he also wants northern Israel to be secure from cross-border attacks. Syria, should it choose, can facilitate both objectives.