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Hard bargaining still ahead for Syria, Israel

SHEPHERDSTOWN: Syrian and Israeli negotiators will continue the hard work of making peace on Wednesday as they discuss issues that have divided the two Middle Eastern countries for more than 50 years.

The two delegations are meeting at a secluded little town in the West Virginia countryside this week after a four-year hiatus in talks aimed at achieving a historic peace agreement.

The talks got off to a rocky start on Monday, but U.S. President Bill Clinton on Tuesday helped resolve a conflict about how to begin the talks and brought together Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara for an hour-long face-to-face meeting.

The U.S. president then hosted an informal social gathering at a hotel in Shepherdstown before heading back to Washington. The White House has kept his schedule light, but Clinton was not expected to return to Shepherdstown on Wednesday.

U.S. officials said the day's schedule remained fluid, with a variety of committees expected to meet over the next few days on issues such as water, security, normalisation of relations, an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and the timetable for any agreement.

The two sides kicked off the first of the committee meetings on Tuesday evening, their most substantial negotiations since talks broke down in acrimony in 1996, Syrian officials said.

A senior Syrian official said two committees, one to discuss the border after an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and one on how to share out the water resources in the area, met on Tuesday evening.

A spokesman for the Israeli delegation declined to say which committees were the first to meet. U.S. officials, who are mediating the talks, were not available to comment.

Israeli officials had said committees on security arrangements and normal relations would meet first and talks would follow later in the week on water and borders.

Syria, on the other hand, has insisted for years that progress on these other issues depends on Israel agreeing to withdraw to the border as it stood before the war of 1967.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said the meeting between Clinton, Barak and Shara was "quite productive." "It was a comprehensive and rigorous discussion of where we are and where we need to get to," he added.

But he again warned against expecting the two sides to quickly reach their immediate target, a "core" agreement on the main issues, during this round of talks.

U.S. officials were mum on Tuesday about the amount of money Washington would be prepared to make available to support implementation of a peace deal, saying reports of a multibillion dollar package for Israel were "premature."

Rubin did acknowledge that a "peace agreements of this magnitude are inevitably going to carry a price," but declined to give any further details.

The outlines of a deal have been clear for years -- since even before the talks broke off in 1996.

Israel would give up most or all of the strategic Golan Heights in return for peace and security arrangements such as early warning stations and demilitarized zones. An agreement also would divide water resources.

U.S. officials said they had planned for about one week of talks and after that time would decide what should happen next.-Reuters