Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Haaretz:

President Shimon Peres on Sunday dismissed recent Syrian calls for peace talks, telling U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney that Israel would not consider ceding the Golan Heights to Syria only to have Damascus and Tehran increase their dominance in Lebanon.

“Israel is not willing to return the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for Iranian-Syrian control of Lebanon,” Peres said at the Jerusalem meeting, referring in part to the Damascus and Tehran’s support for the Lebanese guerilla group Hezbollah.

Last week, Peres made similar remarks to visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , when he said “talk of peace from Syria arouses distrust within Israel.”

The president added that while Israel is always ready to negotiate toward peace with Syria, the duplicitous game that Assad is playing in Syria cannot be ignored. He noted that a tremendous amount of Iranian-funded weapons are transferred to Hezbollah everyday through Syria.

For his part, Cheney said at Sunday’s meeting that it appears Syrian President Bashar Assad is not interested in peace talks with Israel. Cheney also said that the U.S. is concerned about Syria’s arming of Hezbollah.

Cheney also spoke about haltering Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, while in the same breath referring to the threat posed by Iran, though he did not mention the country by name.

“We are obviously dedicated to doing all we can as an administration to try to move the peace process forward, and obviously actively involved in dealing with the threats that we see emerging in the region - not only threats to Israel, but threats to the United States as well,” the U.S. vice president said.

On the subject of Iran, Peres said anti-Israel declarations by its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel, and Tehran’s support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups, cannot be ignored.

“We have this problem of the Iranians who want to build two satellites, the Hezbollah [in Lebanon] and the Hamas in Gaza. … Nobody can control us and say that declarations by Ahmadinejad are less serious,” Peres said. “We have to take it seriously.”

The president added that the U.S. and Europe must lead a campaign against Iran’s bid to develop long range missiles.

“Right under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s noses, the Iranians are spending a massive amount of money in order to develop long range missiles that can be equipped with a nuclear warhead. These missiles are damning evidence that Iran’s nuclear plan is not for civilian purposes,” Peres said.

He said time is of the essence in the peace process, but that he believes
progress is achievable. “The mere fact that in spite of the differences the negotiations go on is a great hope for the future,” Peres said.

After Cheney’s arrival in Israel on Saturday, the U.S. vice president vowed his country would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security.

“America’s commitment to Israel’s security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel’s right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel’s destruction,” Cheney said ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

J-Post:

Israel will not agree to a deal with Syria involving the return of the Golan Heights, President Shimon Peres said Sunday.

“If the Golan is given back, it will boost Iran’s influence in Lebanon and the territory will effectively be under Iranian-Syrian control,” said Peres.

Cheney said the US was concerned by developments in Syria, specifically about Damascus supplying weapons to Hizbullah.

The US vice president added that he did not get the impression that Syrian President Bashar Assad was interested in dialogue with Israel.

Peres also told Cheney that the US and Europe were apparently ignoring Iran’s ballistic missile development.

“Iran’s only intentions of developing ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads are to destroy Israel and threaten the entire world,” he added.

Cheney vowed that the US would do everything it could to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat.

Peres insisted that until the end current US administration’s term, several goals could be reached. He said negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians must be focused on with a view to economic development. He stressed that special attention must be given to the threats posed by Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas.

Cheney said that the US would do its utmost to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Cheney also met with opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Netanyahu told the US vice president that regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, all options must be on the table.

Netanyahu went on to say that if Israel withdraws from any part of Jerusalem, Hizbullah and Hamas would take over there and establish “another Iranian base” next to Israel, similar, he said, to the Hizbullah-ruled base in the North and the Hamas-ruled base in the South.

After his meeting with Cheney, Netanyahu told reporters that in his opinion, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had effectively admitted that negotiations over the division of the capital were already being conducted and said they must not be allowed to continue.

Netanyahu also called on Shas to withdraw from the coalition so as not to enable discussions over the division of Jerusalem and to prevent the possibility of a Palestinian flag being hoisted on the Temple Mount.