No Meaning of Peace without Restoring Golan to Syria, Specter Says

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DAMASCUS, (SANA) -US Republican Senator Arlen Specter Sunday described his meeting with President Bashar al-Assad as very productive.

In a press conference held with Democratic Congressman Patrick Kennedy before leaving Damascus , Specter said "there is no meaning of the whole peace process without restoring Golan to Syria ", adding " this is the essence of the issue and it is fair to say that if Golan will not be returned back ,then there is no agreement.'

"Syrian –Israeli peace negotiations were held on the base of restoring Golan to Syria, and it is important for all sides to work during the current stage towards accomplishing progress in the peace process in the region, Specter said, adding that his current visit to Syria aims at contributing to achieving this goal.

The US Senator expressed conviction that there is an opportunity to realize peace in the region including the Syrian track, considering Syria's participation in Annapolis conference a step on the way to achieve the peace in the region.

Specter spoke about the responsibility assumed by the Congress regarding the issues that affect the US foreign policy.

On Lebanon, Specter pointed out to Syrian–French efforts exerted to find a solution to the Lebanese crisis, affirming that this solution must be based on the concordance among the Lebanese sides along with the help of Syria and France.

"We understand that the US democracy itself can not be realized in Lebanon and what we aspire for is the democracy of agreement among the Lebanese different sides," He added, noting that Minister al-Moallem briefed them on the efforts exerted by Syria and France to reach agreement among the Lebanese sides to elect the President.

For his part, Representative Kennedy expressed happiness over visiting Syria, describing the meeting with President al-Assad as very important.

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History of the Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is a region in southwestern Syria, occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of June 1967. The area of the Golan Heights is about 1250 sq km (about 483 sq mi).

Prior to 1967 the Golan Heights was home to approximately 100,000 Syrians. When Israel invaded the region in 1967, most of the Syrian population were forced to leave. Today, their number exceeds 500,000. They are still not allowed to go back to the homes and lands they left 40 years ago.

Several thousand Syrians remained in the Golan in 1967, however. Today, only 16,000 Syrians live in a small number of villages. Most of the villages that existed before 1967 were deliberately destroyed by the Israelis. Israel has also built 32 illegal settlements in the Golan despite international condemnation.

Syria tried to recapture the area in October 1973, when Syrian and Egyptian armies attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Syria regained a strip of territory that included the main city of Quneitra in the disengagement agreements signed following the war. Since that time, a buffer zone between the Syrian and Israeli armies has been patrolled by UN forces.

When Syrians entered liberated Quneitra, they were shocked to find that every single building in the city was destroyed by the Israelis. Ruins of the city still stand today as a witness of Israeli aggression.

In 1981 Israel annexed the Golan Heights by extending Israeli civil law to the region. This step was met with Syrian, Arab and international condemnation.

Israel's annexation of the Heights was not recognized by any nation in the world.
The Heights are the main topic in the Syrian- Israeli peace talks started in 1991. The talks were stalled for a long time because of Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the Golan. The Israeli government still refuses to implement Un resolutions 242 and 338, which call for complete withdrawal from occupied Arab territories and resolution 479 which confirms the illegality of Israel's annexation of the Golan.


Quneitra, Golan Heights, Syria

Quneitra was once a bustling town in the Golan Heights and southwestern Syria's administrative capital with a population of 37,000. The word Quneitra derives from Qantara, or 'bridge', between Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. Known for its abundant water resources, it has been continuously inhabited since the Stone Age. Over the millennia, many peoples, including Arameans, Assyrians, Caldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Arabs have occupied it. St. Paul, it is said, passed through Quneitra on his way from Damascus to Jerusalem.

In 1967, during the six-day war, Israel captured Quneitra. It then became a site of many battles but, except for a brief interlude, remained in Israeli hands until 1974, when a UN-brokered agreement led to an Israeli pullback. Before withdrawing, however, Quneitra was evacuated and systematically destroyed by the Israeli army (based on eyewitness accounts; UN General Assembly resolution 3240 in 1974 condemned Israel's role in its destruction. Israel disputes this account). Many prominent Western reporters, agreeing with the UN and Syrian version of events, saw this as nothing short of an act of wanton brutality - a whole town methodically ransacked, dynamited, and bulldozed.

Quneitra lies undisturbed ever since, a ghost town riddled with land mines, an open-air museum of Middle-Eastern wars (Syria now shows it off as proof of Israeli malice). Church domes and minarets, blackened and broken, rise above the wasteland. Do these sights, I wondered, ever infuriate native sons into seeking compensation in kind? Behind the town, a barbed-wire fence marks the border with the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. Quneitra now falls within the UN-patrolled demilitarized zone. A UN peacekeeper accompanies all visitors to Quneitra who must first obtain a visitation permit from the Syrian government

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