The Syrian dictator clarified his demand for Israeli-Palestinian peace as a precondition for an Israeli-Syrian treaty. He says he cannot sign a peace treaty with Israel while 1.5 million Palestinian refugees live in Syria; the commonly cited number is half of that. Assad talks sense, actually: a separate Israeli-Syrian peace would spell Palestinian unrest in Syria. Though Assad’s army can quash the refugees, he’s afraid of suffering Sadat’s fate. The problem is, Syrian Palestinians, just like the Lebanese ones, have nowhere to go: the West Bankers would fight them as they fought the Gazans whom Sharon attempted to resettle; no one wants the degraded, criminalized refugees.
Assad also said that he can sign a peace treaty with Israel but cannot guarantee normalization unless Israel resolves her conflicts with all other Muslim countries. That also makes sense, as for example Israeli-Egyptian relations remain deeply hostile after thirty years of formal peace.
Assad seems to desire rapprochement with the Israeli-Egyptian-American axis, but is deeply wary of Iran’s reaction and that of the Arab world in general. At the Riyadh talks, Mubarak will try to assuage his fears.
