Israel and Syria will begin talks on a peace treaty within weeks, a senior aide to the Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, predicted yesterday. This came amid reports that the Syrians have already ordered the various Palestinian militants groups in Damascus to abandon violence against Israel.
But the rush towards peacemaking with Syria is infuriating Mr Yasser Arafat, who fears the Palestinians are being marginalised, and who last night rejected Mr Barak's 15-month peace timetable.
At a press conference on Monday summing up Mr Barak's week-long visit to the US, President Clinton declared that Syria now had a "golden opportunity" to reach a deal with Israel, and promised "to make it known to President Assad what I consider to be the very successful results of this meeting."
Mr Danny Yatom, Mr Barak's key adviser, said in a radio interview that it would not take very long until substantive negotiations got going.
Mr Barak has intimated since taking office two weeks ago that he is prepared to relinquish much or even all of the Golan Heights within the framework of normalised Israeli relations with both Syria and Lebanon.
Damascus Radio reiterated yesterday that the return of the Golan was the price Syria has always demanded for peace, and called on Mr Barak to match his words with deeds.
Mr Barak told Mr Clinton that he envisaged a 15-month time frame for peace-making. Any deal with Syria would, by Israeli law, be subject to a referendum in Israel. As things stand now, the Israeli public would likely vote down a Golan-for-peace arrangement.
Were Syria to use the 15 months to assuage Israeli doubts about the security implications of giving up the Heights, however, the electorate could probably be won over. And it is in this context that reports of a hardening attitude in Damascus to the Palestinian rejectionist groups there could prove significant.
An Israeli Arab Knesset member, Mr Taleb a-Sana, spoke by telephone yesterday to the leader of one of these groups, Mr Nayef Hawatmeh of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who told him that the DFLP no longer regarded the "armed struggle" as the primary means of liberating occupied territory.
Mr a-Sana said that, earlier this month, Syria's Vice-President, Mr Abdel Khalim Khaddam, met leaders of some of the rejectionist groups, told them that Syria was expecting a breakthrough in peace talks, urged them to put an end to violence, and suggested they plan to turn themselves into political parties.
Palestinian officials yesterday added that Mr Hawatmeh and other hard-liners, including Mr George Habash of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were to meet Mr Arafat at the end of this month in Cairo. Ironically, Mr Arafat is apparently not best pleased by the accelerated pace of Israeli-Syrian developments, fearing that his negotiations with Israel may be sidelined.
After meeting President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo yesterday, Mr Arafat returned to Gaza to declare that the 15-month timetable was "unacceptable . . . We accept only the immediate and speedy implementation of Wye River Memorandum and the Hebron Protocol and the other agreements. It is not logical to waste more time."
Mr Barak has been stressing that his 15-month framework does not preclude speedy implementation of the Wye deal, which provides for further West Bank land handovers to the Palestinians. But he has sought to amend the deal.
In a bid to mollify Mr Arafat, Mr Barak, who ends his overseas trip with a breakfast today in London with Mr Tony Blair, has already scheduled talks with the Palestinian leader for next week.