Word: golan
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...Israeli prisoners of war before negotiations begin-something Syria has adamantly refused to do until it gets an assurance that the Israelis will withdraw from Syrian land. But Egypt's Fahmy and Saudi Arabia's Saqqaf reportedly took to Washington an Arab proposal for disengagement along the Golan Heights. The terms of the proposal were not made public, but it was assumed that Syria had agreed to turn over the P.O.W. list...
Kissinger very much needs a diplomatic breakthrough on the Golan Heights disengagement; otherwise, his fragile design for a Middle East settlement may fall apart. The problem is not made significantly easier by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's difficulties in putting together a viable government (see following story). "Let's face it," said an Israeli foreign ministry official last week, "we do not have very much to gain from a withdrawal on the Syrian front." While Jerusalem has, in fact, indicated some willingness to compromise on territory that Israel captured in October, it has vowed not to surrender...
Syrian President Hafez Assad last week reiterated his government's determination to recover all of its occupied territory. As reported by the Beirut daily Al Bayraq, he offered to repatriate the P.O.W.s "if Israel fulfills the Geneva Convention" and allows the repatriation of 170,000 refugees to the Golan Heights-meaning all of the Syrians who have had to leave their homes since the 1967 war. Assad further declared that Syria was committed to regaining the Heights "even if we fight 100 wars...
...October Arab-Israeli war brought a temporary truce, and diplomatic relations were reestablished. Iraq then felt free to send an army division to face the Israelis on Syria's Golan Heights. With the ceasefire, the Iraqi troops were again posted on the Iranian frontier. Inevitably, a series of border incidents led to last week's duel...
Assad's socialist Baath regime maintains a no-compromise position toward Israel, which captured chunks of the Golan Heights in 1967 and extended its gains in the October war. But in secret meetings in Damascus last week, hardliners and moderates in the Baath National Command engaged in fierce debates over how Syria should act. The hardliners, headed by Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, insisted that the cease-fire agreement should be Syria's only concession until Israel withdraws from all occupied territory. The moderates, led by Premier Mahmoud Ayoubi, reportedly were agreeable to a phased Israeli withdrawal...