Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 17, 1994 TAG: 9401170069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: GENEVA LENGTH: Medium
After a five-hour meeting at the end of Clinton's eight-day trip to Europe and the former Soviet Union, the Syrian leader declared that if pending negotiations succeed, "We are ready to sign peace now."
"If the leaders of Israel have sufficient courage to respond to this kind of peace, a new era of security and stability . . . [with] normal, peaceful relations among all shall dawn," he said in a news conference with Clinton.
For all the 45 years of Israel's existence, Syria has rejected peace on any terms the Jewish state could conceivably accept.
For the first time, senior U.S. officials are saying, Assad has specifically committed himself to negotiations aimed at establishing "normal" relations - a code word suggesting he is ready to accept Israel's insistence that any final accord provide not only security guarantees but trade and open borders.
In return, Clinton publicly praised Assad as the indispensable player on the Arab side of the peace process. "I believe Syria is the key to the achievement of an enduring and comprehensive peace that finally will put an end to the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbors," Clinton said.
Assad has long sought recognition as the principal leader of the Arab side, which accounts in part for his hostile reaction to last year's secret negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. They took place without his knowledge or participation.
Clinton emphasized that negotiating the details of a settlement between Israel and Syria is primarily up to the parties directly involved.
by CNB