RESPONSE: Minister: If there were contacts, we'd have known

By Haaretz Service Last update - 09:37 16/01/2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/814085.html

A senior cabinet minister, responding to the Haaretz report that
understandings for a peace agreement between Israel and Syria were
formulated in a series of secret meetings in Europe between September 2004
and July 2006, was quoted Tuesday as saying that there were no contacts
between the two nations, and that the story was "a bluff."

"We don't know about this, and if this had happened, we would have known
about it," Israel Radio quoted the unnamed minister was as saying. "This is
not serious. It's possible that there were contacts on the level of
academics, it's possible that there were reports to officials on a low
level. But it did not reach higher than that."

The minister dismissed the report as a "bluff," the radio said.

David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister's office, said "the Israeli
government is unaware of any such meetings."

Former foreign minister Silvan Shalom said that he first learned of the
talks by reading Tuesday's paper. He said the last contact Israel had with a
Syrian representative was in 2003.

Dr. Alon Liel, a former director general at the Foreign Ministry, who took
part in all the meetings, was quoted as saying that he had not acted the
representative of anyone. Liel further declined to state whom he had
informed of the meetings.

The radio quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials as stating that Israel is
not holding contacts with Syria.

The officials referred to the sensitivity of the issue, in view of the
opposition of Washington, Israel's main ally, to negotiations with the
regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"Syria is trying to topple the Siniora government in Lebanon, a government
which the United States is trying to aid," the radio quoted one official as
saying. "Syria streams terror elements to Iraq, where they operate against
the United States military, Syria fosters [Damascus-based Hamas leader]
Khaled Meshal, it transfers arms to Hezbollah, hosts headquarters of terror
organizations, supports Hamas, and, in general, undermines any attempt to
reach a [peace] agreement

A figure described as a very senior official in the office of then-prime
minister Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying that "there was no reports to
Sharon, there were no reports to his office, there was no connection between
Sharon and Alon Liel, this never happened."

"This is absolute nonsense."