U.S. Says Much Work to Be Done for Resumption of Syrian-Israeli Talks

The United States conceded on Monday that there was much work to be done before Syrian-Israeli peace talks could resume.

"There's still an enormous amount of work to be done," State Department spokesman James Rubin told a regular briefing. "We've had a problem where each side wants its needs to be met first. And that had made it not possible, as yet, to restart talks formally."

He said President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Middle East envoy Dennis Ross had been working intensively on the Syrian track for weeks. But he declined to discuss the contacts in detail, saying the secrecy would make it easier to make progress.

Syria and Israel suspended their talks in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, last January, as both sides stressed to first discuss their own demand. Syria said Israel must first pull out of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War, before it should consider normalization of their relations while Israel asked for security requirements for its withdrawal from the strategic plateau.

On Monday, a close aide to both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and late Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin disclosed that Rabin told Washington in 1993 he would be willing to cede the Golan Heights to Syria in return for a full peace.

Danny Yatom, who was Rabin's military secretary until his 1995 assassination, quoted Rabin's talks with then U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as saying: "If all of Israel's needs are fulfilled, then Israel does not rule out the possibility of withdrawing to the June 4 1967 line, and will consider it along with other lines."

It was the first official confirmation of Syrian claims regarding Rabin's statement, and also an indirect signal Barak showing to Damascus for his willingness to pull out of the Golan Heights.

A U.S. official said the indirect confirmations of this kind may not be enough to convince the Syrians, who have asked for a formal assurance of full Israeli withdrawal from the Gold Heights.

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