Political Geography: Arab Countries / Topic: Diplomacy

Author:: Patrick Clawson and Robert Satloff
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: After more than a week of negotiations in Shepherdstown, W.Va., the "working draft" of the Syria-Israel peace treaty reported in yesterday's Ha'aretz notes only one area of seemingly irreconcilable difference between the two parties—over the scope of the demilitarized zone separating the two sides. As currently worded, the text neither rules in nor rules out an Israeli withdrawal to the "June 4, 1967, lines." The draft reflects a document much more detailed than a Camp David-style framework accord or an Oslo-type Declaration of Principles but still far short of a full-blown peace treaty. In tone and wording, it is a throwback to the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, with few improvements and even several drawbacks from that two-decade-old document.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, and Diplomacy
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, Israel, Arab Countries, Syria, and Egypt

Author:: Raghida Dergham and Joel Singer
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: On January 4, 2000, Raghida Dergham, the senior diplomatic correspondent for Al-Hayat newspaper, and Joel Singer, a principal architect of the Oslo Accords and an Israeli participant in the 1996 Wye Plantation negotiations with Syria, addressed the Washington Institute's Policy Forum to discuss the prospects of Syrian-Israeli peace talks in Shepherdstown. The following is a rapporteur's summary of their remarks.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, and Diplomacy
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, Arab Countries, and Syria

Author:: Gal Luft
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: While Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara are talking peace at Shepherdstown, the fighting in south Lebanon still goes on. Last time the two leaders met in Washington in December, the party was almost spoiled after a stray shell fired by South Lebanese Army (SLA) gunners hit an elementary school in the Lebanese village of Arab Salim, wounding twenty-four children. Residents of Israel's northern settlements anticipating Hizballah's wrath had to spend the night in their bomb shelters. Only after Israel's prompt apology, describing the incident as "an unfortunate mistake," did Hizballah, breaking with its usual pattern, agree not to retaliate by firing katyusha rockets at Israel's north.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, and Diplomacy
Political Geography:: Washington, Middle East, Israel, Arab Countries, Lebanon, and Syria

Author:: David Schenker
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: With Syrian-Israeli peace talks underway in Shepherdstown, W.Va., media attention has focused on the shape of a possible peace agreement and the potential for U.S. financial assistance to the parties. Virtually no attention, however, has been paid to the principal legal obstacle in the way of U.S. aid to one of the two putative peacemakers: Syria's place on the State Department's list of countries recognized as "state sponsors of terrorism." It is generally assumed that Syria will "do what it takes" within the context of making peace with Israel to earn its removal from the State Department's list, or that Washington will, in the framework of peace, find enough in Syrian efforts to merit Damascus's decertification as a terrorist-supporting state. In this environment, the potential rises that U.S. antiterrorism efforts will be blurred to fit an emerging Syria-Israel political reality.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, and Diplomacy
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, Arab Countries, and Syria

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