Key announcement likely at Damascus summit

Dubai: A crucial announcement in the Syrian-Israeli peace talks is expected on Thursday at the four-way summit in Damascus, political experts from the participating countries said.

The anticipated resumption of direct talks between the Syrians and Israelis under French sponsorship has already received the green light from the US, analysts added.

"This is a strategic and historic summit by all means," Emmad Fawzi Shoaibi, head of the Data and Strategic Studies Centre in Damascus, said.

It will constitute a starting point for a change in the way of dealing with the region's issues by many parties, including the neoconservatives in Washington, Shoaibi told Gulf News.

The summit comes at the end of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Damascus.

It was the first by a Western head of state in nearly five years.

Participants

Apart from Sarkozy his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Al Assad, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, are taking part in the summit, which will bring together three powers.

These are France, which currently holds the European Union presidency and is a permanent member of the Security Council, Qatar, which holds the present GCC presidency and is a key broker in inter-Arab disputes, and Turkey, which "is the bridge between Europe and the Arab world", Shoaibi said.

Turkey has been mediating in the indirect Syrian-Israeli talks for several months.

Current Turkish foreign policy comes out of a desire to play an "active role in the region", said Muharrem Hilmi Ozev of the Istanbul-based Turkish Asian Centre for Strategic Studies.

"Syria hits the bull's-eye with the holding the summit," Qatari political scientist Mohammad Al Musfir said in an interview with Gulf News.

"Syria seeks a strategic ally in the region," he added.

The summit, which came at the invitation of Damascus, is expected to last one hour, they added.

"For presidents, an hour is a long time," Al Musfir said.

"Everything is prepared," he added.

"I expect an announcement of crucial steps in the peace negotiations between the Syrians and the Israelis.

"Between the lines lies what is much more important than the peace talks themselves," Musfir added, without elaboration.

The Damascus summit comes a few days before the fifth round of indirect talks between Damascus and Tel Aviv. The coming round is scheduled for next Sunday.

Direct negotiations between the two sides broke down in 2000 over the status of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Mediation

Syrian president Assad has called on France and the United States to mediate in negotiations towards a peace accord with Israel.

Sarkozy, on the eve of his visit to Damascus, said France would be willing to help sponsor any face-to-face negotiations between Israel and Syria.

The Syrian newspaper Al Watan quoted him as saying that Syria was looking to France and the United States to offer such a backing.

"That's proof of the confidence that we are rebuilding between our two countries," Sarkozy was quoted as saying.

"As I told President Assad, France will of course be available to accompany the parties."

Sarkozy is not carrying any particular message from Israel on his visit, said a top official in Sarkozy's office, who spoke on condition that his name not be used because of official policy.

"I am confident," replied Shoaibi, when asked whether the Americans are blessing the resumption of direct talks under French sponsorship while they are engaged in holding presidential elections later this year.

The French wouldn't follow a policy that contradicts that of the Americans, Ozev believes.

"I think they [the French] got the green light from the Americans," he said.