DATE=3/29/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-SYRIA (L)
NUMBER=2-260745
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton -- at his news conference
(Wednesday) -- challenged Syrian President Hafez Al-
Assad to come up with a detailed response to the
Israeli peace proposals he conveyed to the Syrian
leader on Sunday in Geneva. Mr. Clinton has been
saying since their meeting that the responsibility to
advance the Syrian-Israeli track of the peace process
now rests with President Assad. V-O-A's David Gollust
reports from the White House.
TEXT: Mr. Clinton says it's not enough for the Syrians
to merely reject the latest Israeli proposal, and he
says if there is to be a negotiating process, Damascus
will have to respond with a plan of its own.
Mr. Clinton spent much of Sunday in a meeting with
President Assad in Geneva that U-S officials said did
not narrow any of the gaps barring the way to a peace
accord. At his news conference, Mr. Clinton said
Israel has been specific and comprehensive in its
proposals, and President Assad should be equally
forthcoming in his reply.
/// CLINTON ACTUALITY ///
If we're going to have a negotiation, I don't
think it's enough to say I don't like your
position, come back and see me when I like your
position. And I understand how strongly he feels
about it. But if he disagrees with their
territorial proposal, which is quite
significant, then there should be some other
proposal I think coming from the Syrians about
how their concerns could be handled.
/// END ACT ///
The Israelis and Syrians are understood to agree on
most points of a proposed peace accord under which
Israel would vacate the Golan Heights - which it has
occupied since 1967 - in exchange for security
measures and a normalization of relations with
Damascus.
But they disagree over the precise delineation of a
border, and particularly whether Syria would control
any portion of the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee,
which is Israel's principal source of water.
Mr. Clinton said he thinks both Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak and President Assad want to conclude a
peace accord, and the United States will keep working
to help facilitate it. He has sent U-S Middle East
envoy Dennis Ross to the region to try to advance the
dialogue and, at a meeting here Tuesday, asked
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for his assistance.
Under questioning, the president said that none of the
security options being discussed would involve the
stationing of U-S troops in the Golan Heights after an
Israeli pullback. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/ENE/gm
29-Mar-2000 16:24 PM EDT (29-Mar-2000 2124 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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