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November 26, 1999/17 Kislev 5760, Vol. 52, No.13
Syrian leader's health worries officials
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Israeli officials, carefully monitoring reports that Syrian President Hafez Assad is ill, are worried about a power vacuum or succession battle in Damascus.
Some Israelis are worried that if the political situation in Syria is uncertain, then so is the resumption of Israeli-Syrian peace talks.
The latest word on Assad's poor health was conveyed to Israeli officials by France's foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, who recently returned from Damascus. According to reports, Vedrine said that Assad, who is known to suffer from a heart ailment, is no longer as alert as he used to be. The man who used to drag meetings and negotiations on for hours to wear down his opponents now only works a couple of hours each day.
Vedrine later denied the reports - but just the same, there have been other sources saying for months that Assad's health is deteriorating. Some Israeli officials believe that this provides ample reason for not resuming negotiations with Syria, which were broken off in 1996.
"It is a lame-duck regime," Likud Knesset member Uzi Landau told JTA. "We do not know how long the present regime will last."
Likud leader Ariel Sharon has likewise said that Israel should freeze any further contacts with Damascus until Syria's internal situation clears up. But this is not the position of the government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh maintained this week that the internal situation in Damascus is irrelevant.
"We operate under the assumption that Syria has a vested interest in peace with Israel, regardless of who leads it," said Sneh, who rejected Sharon's wait-and-see approach.
"We cannot waste our time with speculation about the stability of regimes," Sneh said. "This will get us nowhere."
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