Syria Today | Mu’allem: peace depends on 1967 border withdrawal

Mu’allem: peace depends on 1967 border withdrawal

Syria will not attend any peace summit, including a proposed international conference to be held in Russia at the end of the year, unless Israel commits to withdrawing to the 1967 borders in the Golan Heights, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mu’allem said on July 12. Mu’allem made the comments during a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner held in Damascus.

“Israel should accept the principles of the peace process, the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the principle of withdrawing from the Syrian occupied lands to the borders of 1967,” Mu’allem told reporters in response to a question from Syria Today. “Syria also needs to know what the goal of holding this conference is [the Russian conference], because the failure of any international conference in pushing the peace process forward would be dangerous for the stability of the region.”

Asked to comment on recent statements by Uzi Arad – a top policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – that Israel would never fully withdraw from the Golan “for strategic, military and settlement reasons”, Mu’allem said he would not respond to individual statements from Israeli ministers.

“I refuse to comment on a statement by an Israeli minister, what matters is the attitude of the Israeli government,” he said.

Also speaking at the press conference, Kouchner said both Damascus and Paris believe “it is up to the Lebanese to organise their government” following the country’s elections in June won by the Western-backed March 14 group. Kouchner attended the press conference after meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“It is up to the Lebanese parties which I met, including Hezbollah, to agree under the leadership of prime minister-designate Saad Hariri,” Kouchner said.

Speaking in Beirut on July 10, Kouchner said that he was pleased with the improvement in France’s relationship with Syria.

“I am not unaware that Syria continues to be important in this part of the world, and we are pleased to have established normal relations with Syria,” he said.