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Specter meets with Assad, sees window for peace

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., speaks at a news conference with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., Sunday before leaving Damascus. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Albert Aji Associated Press
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., speaks at a news conference with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., Sunday before leaving Damascus. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria’s president is ready for peace with Israel, Sen. Arlen Specter said Sunday after talks with Bashar Assad. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the United States has the potential to “bridge the gap” between the two countries, which have not held peace talks since 2000. He said it would be essential that Israel return the disputed Golan Heights region to Syria.

Specter, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat and member of the House Appropriations Committee, held talks with Assad on the last day of their two-day visit to Damascus.

Specter said he had the impression from the meeting that the time was very “positive for productive talks between Israel and Syria. here is a sense that he (Assad) is ready and the Syrian public opinion is ready (for peace).” The atmosphere is “very different in Damascus today and is very different in Jerusalem today” in part because of last month’s U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., which Syria attended, Specter said.

In 2000, formal U.S.-sponsored Israel-Syria talks neared agreement but broke down over final border and peace arrangements. Syria demands the full return of the Golan Heights, territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

“I think it is fair and accurate to say: If there is no Golan return, there is no (peace) deal, that is the core of the deal,” Specter told a news conference.

Relations between Syria and the U.S. appeared to warm briefly following Syria’s attendance at the Annapolis conference.

But both sides have since lashed out at one another, each accusing the other of meddling in Lebanon, where the Western-backed government is locked in a political standoff with the pro-Syrian opposition. The country has been without a president since Nov. 23, when pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud stepped down without a successor.

Syria effectively controlled Lebanon for almost three decades but was forced to withdraw its troops in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Sunday that France was cutting off talks with Syria until Damascus shows its willingness to let Lebanon elect a new president.