85% of Syria-Israel Negotiations Complete

According to a Ynetnews article, only 15% of issues remain to be resolved before a final peace settlement between Syria and Israel is reached.

An Israeli Diplomat, Alon Liel told Ynetnews that he attended a meeting in Brussels last week with Riad Daoudi whom he desicribed as “the number one advisor to Assad”

Daoudi, who also heads the judicial branch of the Syrian presidency, was quoted by Liel as saying: “85 percent of the Syrian-Israeli deal is closed. A mechanism has to be found to allow for discussion on the rest of the issues.” Speaking to Ynetnews, Liel said he attended a meeting in Brussels last week with Riad Daoudi, described by Liel as “the number one advisor to Assad.”

But Barry Rubin, an expert on Syria, points out the fallacy of such delusions:

I believe that Syria doesn’t really want the Golan Heights back. Because if they got it back it would be a disaster for the regime,” Rubin said. “Assuming they got it back, what would happen? A couple of days of celebrations, people would say, the war is over, now when are we going to have a better economy, more democracy, less corruption, more freedom? In other words, it would be a disaster for the regime

He the then rightfully points out what Syria really wants:

Syria would not be able to use the cause of the Golan to mobilize support for itself. They need the conflict and they can’t give it up. What they really want is Lebanon. The Golan Heights are almost worthless for them. Lebanon is the prize,” Rubin said, adding that Lebanon represented a huge economic asset for the Syrian regime.Therefore I believe on the basis of this analysis, that the most important card they’re playing is the radicalism card. I don’t believe negotiations are going to go anywhere,” he said.

Words of wisdom indeed. The Israelis would be fools not to listen to him..