Israel agreed to Golan Heights withdrawal in 90s, ex-official says

Sep 10, 2009, 8:48 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed during his previous term of office to withdraw from the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights in return for a peace treaty with Syria, a former senior Israeli official said Thursday.

Danny Yatom, who headed the Mossad intelligence agency during Netanyahu's 1996 - 1999 term of office, told Israel Radio that his claim was backed up by a document in which US millionaire Ron Lauder, Netanyahu's envoy at the time, conveyed Netanyahu's agreement to then US president Bill Clinton.

Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, in the 1967 Middle East War. Syria demands its complete return as a prerequisite for any peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Yatom, who also served as political security advisor to Netanyahu's successor, Ehud Barak, and then as a legislator for the Labour Party, said that while Netanyahu's agreement was not binding after 11 years, the premier should at least admit that he agreed to a withdrawal.

Officials in Netanyahu's office told the German Press Agency dpa Thursday that Yatom's claim was untrue.

A spokesman for Netanyahu was also quoted Thursday in the Yediot Ahronot daily as saying that 'Prime Minister Netanyahu never once gave his consent to a withdrawal ... either directly or by means of any emissary.'

According to Yediot, Lauder himself denied that any agreement had been reached and the Israeli daily quoted his spokesman as saying that 'the allegation as if Mr Lauder committed to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights is a lie.'

'Mr Lauder indeed corresponded with President Clinton about ideas that he (Mr Lauder) had raised in talks with the Syrian president, but since this was his personal correspondence between himself and the president, he has no intention of discussing their content,' the spokesman said.

However, Yediot published a letter which it said was written by Lauder and which stated that 'Israel will withdraw from the Syrian land taken in 1967, in accordance with Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which established the right of all states to secure and recognized borders in the 'land for peace' formula, to a commonly agreed border based on the line of June 4, 1967.'

According to the newspaper, the Lauder letter also noted that in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from the Heights, the Syrians would agree to permit an American-French early-warning station to be built on Mount Hermon, the highest peak on the Golan.

The last direct Israeli-Syrian peace talks broke down in March 2000, over a dispute on the extent of any Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.

Open but indirect talks were also held in 2008, under Turkish mediation, but were not continued after Netanyahu replaced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this year.