Opinion: US Must Mediate Peace Process Fairly

Ezzuldin Derweesh writes in the government-backed daily newspaper Tishreen that the United States is basing its Middle East peace process on Israeli demands, thereby heightening Syrian-US tensions. Washington has invited Syria to participate in the upcoming peace conference in Annapolis in the last week in November.



The author argues that the US should mediate fairly by putting new pressures on Israel to accept the Saudi-led Arab peace initiative, adopted at a Beirut summit in 2002.



He says that as things stand, the neo-conservatives in Washington want the peace process to revolve around Israeli demands rather than the concerns of Arab countries including Syria. Derweesh writes that the conference aims “to improve the image of the American and Israeli administrations before the global community and to present Israel as a country that seeks peace with the Palestinians and Syrians. This will increase global pressure on Syria to accept Israeli conditions for the peace process.”