Negotialions Between Israel and Syria: Towards a Settlement in the Middle Eastern Confltel?

The pcace negotiations now laking place between Israel and Syria hope to achieve a scttlerncnt for the ancient bilateral conflict; thcy have becn also considercd as a necessary prerequisite for the end of the Arab-Isracli confrontation. This essay describes and cvaluates the pcace negotiations bctween thcsc two Nations, and their importance for thc broader Middle Eastern peace process. 1t is dividcd into three main scctions. The first summarizes advances in Arab-1sraeli rclations stemming from the Camp David Accords. It underlines that, although each conferencc between Israel and any Ofie of the Arab Nations displays spccific characteristics, they aH form part oí an indivisible whole; the Syrian-Israeli negotiations, therefore, are of importance for the broadcr process. The second section analyzes Syria's regional role: it studics its evolving relations wilh its neighbors, explains the Syrian leadership in the dispute with Israel, and examines the internal conditions, economic ones espccially, which have led Syria to search ror a more stable regional contexto The third and final scction describes lhe actual stale of peace negotiations between Israel and Syria, enlphasizing the Syrian position in the Persian Gulf, the advantages that the peacc process will bring to the parties involved, and lhe obstacles that this process now faces.