Israeli, Syrian Negotiators Met In Secret, Retired Diplomat Says

JERUSALEM — A retired Israeli diplomat went public yesterday about secret talks between Israel and one of its most implacable enemies, Syria, describing how negotiators met in a luxury Swiss hotel and dodged the press for three years.

Providing a rare insight into the tortuous "back-channel" diplomacy in the region, Alon Liel, a former senior civil servant in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, described shuttling to and from Switzerland for covert meetings with Ibrahim Suleiman, a dual-national American-Syrian, closely linked to Damascus.

They discussed a plan to end 60 years of hostility with Israel offering to give back the Golan Heights, occupied in the 1967 war, in exchange for Syria ending its backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The talks survived crises in Israel when Prime Minister Sharon suffered a stroke and in Syria when the regime of Bashar Al-Assad was almost brought down by turmoil in neighboring Lebanon.

But in the end, the talks failed last summer because Washington put pressure on its close ally, Israel, not to have dealings with Syria, a country linked by President Bush to his so-called "axis of evil."

The collapse of the talks a few months ago led Mr. Liel to break his code of silence, hoping publicity might resuscitate contacts so Syria can be persuaded to end its alignment with Islamic radical groups such as Hamas.

"My feeling is that Syria is now ready to switch orientation," Mr. Liel said.

"If we can pull Syria out of the camp of Islamic fundamentalists and break its association with the Hezbollah, Hamas, and rebel insurgents in Iraq, then that is of great value to us all," he said.

During "hundreds of hours of conversations" Mr. Liel said the discussion centered on the Golan Heights, the territory overlooking Damascus taken from Syria in 1967.