Word: golan
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...murder comes at a critical time for Syria, which is presently engaged in a delicate balancing act of pursuing indirect peace talks with Israel and improved ties to the West, at the same time as maintaining its relations with Hizballah and Iran. In exchange for the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, the Israeli government demands that Syria curtails its strategic alliance with Iran and its backing for Hizballah and for Palestinian militant groups. Still, since Syria and Israel revealed in May that they are negotiating via Turkish mediation, Damascus has paradoxically strengthened its military...
Maybe, but maybe not. Of all the Middle Eastern conflicts, the rift between Israel and Syria would appear to be the easiest to mend. Israel would just have to return the Golan Heights, a rocky Syrian plateau that Israel captured in 1967. If Israel had a strong leader with a popular mandate (admittedly a big if) this wouldn't be impossible given that Israeli settlement in the Golan is relatively sparse and the Heights are no longer so strategically important thanks to advances in Israeli defense technology. But the tougher question is what Israel should get in return...
...negotiating from a position of strength. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is deeply unpopular, buffeted by scandals and just barely clinging to power. This leaves him in no position to make important concessions to Syria's Bashar Assad. Nor does it help that the majority of Israelis oppose returning the Golan Heights, and few regard Assad as trustworthy...
...details of the talks, brokered by Turkey, have yet been made public, but it's a fair guess that the negotiators have spent a great deal of time discussing the Golan Heights - the rocky escarpment Israel seized from Syria in 1967, the return of which is Syria's precondition for peace with Israel...
...least at the Annapolis meeting itself. But though a brief thaw in U.S.-Syrian relations ensued, the resumption of hard-line posturing seems to suggest that Syria wanted more than the Bush Administration was willing to deliver. Syria's main beef with Israel is the occupation of the Golan Heights (captured by Israel in 1967), but the Assad regime has long been concerned that the U.S. is trying to isolate or even topple...