MAY 21, 2008 (LPAC)--American statesman Lyndon LaRouche, who has been promoting the Israel-Syria peace track as the key to shifting the dynamic in the entire Southwest Asia region, commented today on the recently announced Israel-Syria talks, mediated through the Turkish government. Israeli and Syrian negotiators just completed three days of indirect talks in Ankara, sponsored by the Turkish foreign ministry. All sides said they were pleased with the progress, and expect further talks to take place soon. LaRouche underscored the significance of the Turkish role, citing the late Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's (1881-1938) pivotal role in combatting the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Treaty, which sought to carve up the former Ottoman Empire into French and British colonial spheres of control, in the aftermath of World War I. Ataturk countered the Anglo-French machinations by negotiating a firm border agreement with Syria, and this assertion of the sovereign power of the governments of the region set a precedent, that is now, once again, being pursued, with the triangular diplomacy, aimed at securing a permanent peace between Israel and Syria.

In September 2007, Lyndon LaRouche had called for Syria and Israel to reach a peace agreement, arguing that such a peace deal, which the two countries nearly reached in 1994 and, again, in 2000, could shift the entire dynamic of the region in a more positive direction. At the November 2007 Annapolis, Maryland Middle East peace conference, Russia proposed to host a follow-up conference sometime in 2008, to focus primarily on the Syria-Israel peace track. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Council Middle East head Elliot Abrams have insisted that the Assad regime in Damascus must be replaced, and have pressed for Syria's total diplomatic and economic isolation. The Turkish-mediated Syria-Israel talks represent a direct repudiation of the Cheney-Abrams--and British policy.