Britain Urges Syria to Exercise Influence over Hizbullah Positively
A junior minister with the British foreign office urged Syria on Tuesday to use its influence with Hizbullah and Hamas to stop violence against Israel and help create the climate for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Ivan Lewis spoke in Damascus after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
He is on a three-day visit to Syria and is scheduled to travel to Lebanon on Wednesday.
Lewis said he discussed with Muallem the "important opportunity" presented by U.S. President Barack Obama and the need for Syria to help create the conditions for peace.
"We spoke of the very important opportunity that is now presented by President Barack Obama and we want Syria to use its influence in terms of helping to create the conditions now for the two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians," Lewis told reporters.
Obama has supported the creation of a Palestinian state as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and called for a halt to Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank. He has sent his special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, to the region to promote a comprehensive Arab-Israeli settlement.
Syria”s official news agency SANA quoted Muallem as telling Lewis that "a major obstacle" to Mideast peace came from "Israel”s lack of political will to make peace."
Lewis said he believes there is an opportunity to end the Middle East conflict by concluding comprehensive peace, creating a viable Palestinian state alongside a secured Israel and returning to Syria the Golan Heights seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
But he stressed that this needs to be accompanied by "ending of the use of violence to promote or to presume political objectives which why we want to see Syria exercise its influence over Hizbullah and Hamas in a positive way."