Can matchmaker Sarko bring Syria and Israel together?

PHILIPPE WOJAZER/AFP/Getty Images

Anticipating round five in a series of peace talks with Israel, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced that his country submitted a six-point proposal to Turkish mediators during a summit in Damascus today, which brought together leaders of France and key Middle East peace brokers, Qatar and Turkey.

As Syria and Israel gear up for their first face-to-face meeting since 2000, conditions appear to be warming. When Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Assad joined President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris in July, their meeting was chilly — no hand shake or even eye contact was exchanged.

Yet Sarko was clearly undeterred. His visit this week makes him the first Western leader to come to Syria since the country was blamed for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

While Turkish facilitators

are “very happy” with previous talks, potential obstacles loom. Olmert’s July resignation leaves Israel without its chief negotiator and as a result this fifth round, initially set for this week, has been postponed to later in the month.

Assad, who already wants to wait for a new U.S. administration before elevating talks to the next level, made it clear today that real progress also banks on whether or not Israel’s new prime minister will, as he put it, move in the same “direction Olmert had followed.”

The general proposal Syria offered today concerns the “withdrawal line” and the degree to which Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights. It’s a touchy subject — the same point collapsed negotiations in 2000.

While Olmert’s office has yet to comment, some, like Israeli writer Ari Shavit, are calling for leaders to work fast while the iron is hot:

But if there is any step that could at present become a trend in the entire region, it is an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement. Such a treaty would bring about a positive strategic change: It would isolate Hezbollah, cause difficulties for Hamas, threaten Iran and provide support for the concerned moderate forces in the Sunni Arab world.”

Indeed, Sarkozy, by inviting Syria into the fold (with Lebanon possibly to follow), explicitly seeks to move Damascus away from Tehran’s influence.

It’s a smart move. Let’s hope the peace train, however, keeps moving.