Mitchell: Peace includes Syria, Lebanon
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 11, 2009
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The regional agreement that the Obama administration is trying to push
forward is not only about peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but
also peace between Israel and both Syria and Lebanon, US special Middle East
envoy George Mitchell said on Wednesday, on the eve of trips to both Beirut
and Damascus.

Mitchell's comments came at the outset of a meeting with opposition head
Tzipi Livni that concluded two days of meetings in Israel and the
Palestinian Authority.

After meeting with Livni, Mitchell flew to Cairo. From there he will go to
Lebanon on Thursday, and then continue on to Damascus Friday and Saturday
for his first meetings there since taking up his position in January.

One senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said Mitchell's trip to
Lebanon and Syria was indicative of his overall approach - to talk to
everyone and then "try to move the ball down the field one yard at a time."

While the State Department's Jeffrey Feltman and the US National Security
Council's Dan Shapiro have traveled to Syria twice since US President Barack
Obama was sworn into office in January, this will be Mitchell's first visit
to Damascus and - according to diplomatic sources - indicates an interest in
involving Syria in the new US-propelled process.

In addition, it is expected that while in Damascus Mitchell will try to
gauge the attitudes of Hamas - which is headquartered in the Syrian
capital - toward the recent regional developments. Diplomatic officials made
clear that any meeting between Mitchell and Hamas representatives in the
city was "out of the question."

In advance of Mitchell's visit, Syrian President Bashar Assad sent out
signals that he was interested in renewing negotiations with Israel through
the Turks. Likewise, Hamas head Khaled Mashaal sent out somewhat softer
signals, saying on Tuesday that Hamas would "be a positive force in helping
to find a fair solution to the Palestinian people and enabling them to
fulfill their rights."

Despite Mitchell's visit, the Syrian track is not expected to play a
prominent place in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's anxiously awaited
speech on Sunday at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan
University.

Sources in Jerusalem said Netanyahu was expected to endorse the road map and
give a nod toward a Palestinian state, while making clear that it would have
to be a demilitarized state without the ability to threaten Israel.

The sources said that on the two-state issue, Netanyahu's theme would be
"yes, but," and that he would use the speech at the BESA Center to add
elements to the overall narrative of the conflict that Jerusalem thought had
been missing from Obama's speech in Cairo.

One source said Israel was surprised that Obama, delivering his speech in
Cairo, had not mentioned the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, and that
Netanyahu's selection of the BESA Center to deliver his own address was
designed to underline that peace agreement, which took on an irreversible
momentum after Anwar Sadat flew to Israel and addressed the Knesset in 1977.

Following Netanyahu's speech on Sunday, Israel is expected to embark on a
diplomatic full-court press to push forward his diplomatic program. Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman is scheduled to go to Brussels next week for the
annual meting of the Israel-EU Association meeting, where he is expected to
face difficult questioning from the EU foreign ministers, and also to try to
promote the diplomatic program Netanyahu is expected to articulate on Sunday
night.

From Brussels, Lieberman will go to Washington for his first visit there as
foreign minister. The following week Netanyahu will make his first trip to
Europe since he became prime minister, where he will attend three days of
meetings in Italy and France.