http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Middle_East/2000-03/lion270300.shtml
For the 'Lion of Damascus', peace can only follow land
By Robert Fisk, The Independent, 27 March 2000
President Assad claims to like President Clinton but it would be difficult to
find two more different men. Hafez al-Assad is a stickler for detail,
inexhaustible in his search for the exact words that will ensure a ceasefire
or a peace agreement, ruthless in pursuit of his political aims - be it the
return of the occupied Golan Heights or the suppression of an Islamic
insurrection in his own country.
Bill Clinton does not like detail, he prefers emotion, "trust" - a sticky
quality in high politics - and will invariably give way, like all United
States presidents, under Israeli pressure. President Assad knows about that
pressure; he has fought it since 1967 when, as defence minister, he lost
the Golan.
That is why, in 1991, he demanded - and got - a confidential letter from
James Baker, then US Secretary of State, that an Arab-Israeli peace would
be constructed upon United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which
demanded the return of all Arab land occupied in the 1967 war in return
for the security of all states - including Israel - in the area. It is
upon that letter that Mr Assad has based his entire "strategic decision"
for peace. In return, the "Lion of Damascus"- even the Israelis call him
that - has been called inflexible, frightened, sick, desperate and brutal.
It is a big mistake. "People who believe the Syrian leader is negotiating
out of weakness, or because he is desperate to bequeath a peace to his son
Bashar, do not know the President," a close acquaintance of his remarked.
"I have told the Americans to be careful. The Israelis say all these things
but they are making a big mistake. He is determined to get Golan back
under the terms of the UN resolution. He will stick to the letter of the
resolution. Assad is not going to be another Yasser Arafat."
True, President Assad at 69 looks his age. His voice is gravelly, his heart
complaint in 1982 proved his mortality, his feud with his brother Rifaat
continues. Syria is a police state and Mr Assad's enemies rot in the darkest
of prisons. But his resolution is almost Churchillian, his suspicions mostly
well-founded, his fear of entrapment as real as his ability to lock up the
Israelis in their adventures in Lebanon.
If the Israelis want to leave Lebanon, they must give back Golan, Syria's
territory. Otherwise there will be no peace on Israel's northern border.
Abide by the UN resolution, President Assad says. Again and again.
It is easy to make him look uncompromising. The US State Department, its
media and all the third-rate opinion-makers map out an easy story to
follow. The Syrian leader is dying. He must be forced to accept "reality"
(that is, American and Israeli power). He wants Golan back before making
peace; he is throwing a "spanner in the works" by demanding land first
and peace later.
The fact that President Assad has seen what happened to Mr Arafat, who
accepted peace first and got precious little land, no capital in Jerusalem,
no end to Jewish settlements and no return of refugees, is quietly
overlooked. But his refusal to compromise on the Baker letter and the US
promise of a peace based on UN resolutions is his sticking point. Mr
Clinton and Israel were reminded of that again yesterday. President Assad
may be prepared to bargain over early warning stations and water
sources, but he wants the land that was Syrian up to that fateful month of
1967.
Of all Middle East potentates, Mr Assad is perhaps the only one who
believes words mean what they say. "Land for peace" means all the land
and total peace. In that order.
