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Israeli envoy urges syria iran { April 29 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,945540,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,945540,00.html
Israeli envoy urges regime change in Syria and Iran
Ambassador to US calls for sanctions and diplomatic isolation
Oliver Burkeman in Washington
Tuesday April 29, 2003
The Guardian
Israel's ambassador to the US called for "regime change" in Iran and Syria yesterday as players in the Middle East staked out their positions before a crucial Palestinian vote that is expected to trigger publication of the American-backed "road map" to peace.
Removing Saddam Hussein was "not enough", said Daniel Ayalon. But war against Syria and Iran was not the answer, he added, advocating isolating them diplomatically, imposing economic sanctions and using "psychological pressure".
The war in Iraq "has to follow through", he told a conference in Washington of the Anti-Defamation League, an organisation that campaigns against anti-semitism. "We still have great threats of that magnitude coming from Syria, coming from Iran."
His remarks, likely to alarm doves in the Bush administration, came the day before the Palestinian parliament was expected to approve the cabinet of the newly appointed prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, the condition set down by President George Bush for the publication of the road map, which envisages a Palestinian state within three years.
Mr Abbas and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, brought an apparent close to five weeks of in-fighting yesterday when Mr Arafat's Fatah movement directed its members in the Palestinian parliament to approve the cabinet.
A cabinet member, Saeb Erekat, offered cause for optimism when he said a deal had been reached for US personnel to monitor the security provisions of the road map, resolving Palestinian demands.
The Jordanian foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, said in Washington that Israel should end curfews and demolitions in the West Bank and Gaza as a start to the peace process.
The road map has not been published, but according to numerous leaks its first phase calls on the Palestinian leadership to demand "an immediate end to acts of violence against Israelis everywhere".
Mr Ayalon said the Palestinian prime minister would have to dismantle the infrastructures of groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad if there was any hope of progress.
"There cannot be a situation where we negotiate during the day and get killed at night," he said. Israel was "not going to [make it] as conditional for starting the process, but certainly the process cannot go forward if terror continues".
A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, sought to play down Mr Ayalon's remarks on Syria and Iran. "These countries are a major threat. They have stated their ultimate aim is the destruction of the Jewish state," the spokesman said. "We do not prescribe the methods by which these regimes should be removed, but it's obvious we would want them to change."
Mr Ayalon said governments should not allow Iranian leaders to visit, nor should they visit Iran, and he condemned the EU for encouraging commercial relations with Tehran.
"I certainly do not see any aggressive military campaign ... Nobody is suggesting that," he told the conference. But "there are other means that can be exhausted ... the way to deal with Iran for instance is to delegitimise its regime and the way to do that is applying political pressure ... and economic sanctions."
But Buthaina Shabaan, a Syrian foreign ministry spokeswoman, said in a television interview that the remarks demonstrated the problems caused by the "Sharonian agenda ... all that Sharon wants to do in the region is wars and destruction".
· Israeli troops yesterday captured two Palestinian militants allegedly responsible for planning a suicide bombing at a railway station last week that killed a security guard. They were caught in Nablus.
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