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EU envoy appeals for Israel-Syria progress

CAIRO: The European Union's Middle East envoy appealed on Sunday for urgent international efforts to break the deadlock in Israeli-Syrian peacemaking, saying the next month would be crucial.

Miguel Angel Moratinos said the 15-nation EU was in close contact with the United States, Israel and Syria to try to facilitate a resumption of talks following the failure of last Sunday's summit between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Geneva.

"We believe a dialogue between the parties must be restored within this month. We will use all our diplomatic and political weight to try to convince the parties that the only way to solve the issue is through diplomatic negotiation," he told Reuters in an interview.

"We still consider the number one priority is to make the Syrian-Israeli track move ahead, and all efforts have to be concentrated in this direction for a comprehensive peace. The next three or four weeks will be crucial," Moratinos said.

The summit broke down after Assad rejected Israeli proposals put to him by Clinton that would have left the shore of the Sea of Galilee under full Israeli sovereignty and control.

Syria insists Israel must withdraw from the entire occupied Golan Heights to the pre-1967 war ceasefire line, when Syrian forces were on the northeastern shore of the lake, Israel's main water source.

Diplomats have voiced fears that Israel could bring forward plans for a unilateral withdrawal from south Lebanon if the talks remain stalled by early May, triggering violence by Syrian-backed groups which would prompt Israeli retaliation.

Moratinos said the EU was very concerned about the situation but believed there was still room for progress.

EU EFFORTS

The Union is the main paymaster of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and is expected to fund any future accords with Syria and Lebanon, but it has little political say in the U.S.-brokered negotiations.

Clinton has said it is up to Assad to respond to the Israeli proposals. Syria repeated on Saturday that its insistence on a full Israeli withdrawal to the June 4, 1967, line was not open for bargaining.

The EU envoy has visited Israel and spoken to Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara in the last week to try to help rebuild confidence after the high-level setback in Geneva.

He said the most encouraging sign was that all sides were stressing the door to peace remained open.

Diplomats said the EU was not taking sides on the substance of the issues but would encourage Syria to respond to the United States with counter-proposals of its own.

"No one is saying they should accept the Israeli proposal. But they should respond to the Americans," one EU diplomat said on the eve of an Africa-Europe summit in Cairo.

A solution might lie in some creative formula that gave the Syrians sovereignty over the shore but guaranteed Israeli control over the water, with open access for both Israelis and Syrians to the shoreline, he said.

Israel is actively canvassing support for its plan to pull out of Lebanon by July 7, with or without a deal with Syria.

Foreign Minister David Levy is due to meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week to discuss an enhanced mandate for the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon to protect the international border.

But diplomats said no EU state was likely to offer troops for such a force unless there was an agreement with Syria, given the risk of bloodshed otherwise. France has pledged a battalion if there is an accord, but Finland and Ireland have signalled their intention of pulling out of the existing force, UNIFIL.-Reuters