Beware of hybrid Assad

In an interview with Dubai-based al-Khaleej newspaper, Assad, in response to what kind of peace he envisions with Israel, proclaimed: "There will perhaps be an embassy and formalities, but if you want peace then it has to be comprehensive. We give them the choice between comprehensive peace and a peace agreement which does not have any real value on the ground."

In other words, Assad will sign a piece of paper that would unconditionally benefit his rule but pressure on Israel would continue until all Palestinians living in Syria and Lebanon are repatriated into Israel proper, Israel recedes to the '67 borders, Lebanon becomes a province of Syria, and Jerusalem becomes his trophy, thus upstaging all the past Arab kings and presidents.

Whereas peace with Egypt and Jordan exonerated the appeasers, we all should be reminded that neither country supported terror by proxy or long range offensive missiles or clandestine nuclear programs. Further, both countries engaged in peace negotiations out of conviction while Assad is exploiting the survival of Hizbullah and Hamas into more gains at the expense of the Jewish people. A Syrian-Israeli peace treaty will bring the Mullahs to Israel's doorstep and those who are assured of Syrian separation from Iran's orbit of influence must mitigate the risks associated with this fantasy against the smallest of margins of errors; any miscalculation, no matter how minute, could be catastrophic to Israel's survival.

If the fate of both Hizbullah and Hamas escaped the unintended consequences of your past government, our hope is that the new government, although hard pressed for peace, cannot be pressured to strengthen Assad any further. His defeat and not his empowerment remains in the best interests of Syria and Israel. It would be an understatement if I caution Israeli leaders against negotiations with a hybrid Assad claiming his war spoils in the form of more gains at the expense of your very existence.

Having visited the Golan myself in June of 2007, accompanied by MK Yuval Steinitz, I understand fully the Likud's reluctance in general to the measure of ceding these strategic heights; especially to someone who has demonstrated a pre-disposed propensity to terrorize the Jewish people in the most barbaric ways.

Terms of real intentions

True and real peace between Syria and Israel can only be achieved after the Assads have long been indicted by an independent Syrian judicial system for their crimes against the Syrian people. As a Syrian keen on Syria's long-term interests, immediate and long-term steps must be launched by our government before we are qualified for the responsibility of repatriating the Golan Heights:

1. For a period of at least 25-years, Syria must demonstrate its competency to be a full peace partner by empowering democracy and freedom at home, which includes accountability by our political leaders and unconditional protection of human rights. We must turn inward, as a nation, to re-build what the Assads have destroyed. Our leaders must be trusted and respected, not feared and hated. A Syrian democracy must retain supremacy over Sharia laws by enacting progressive civil laws to protect all Syrians, especially women, minorities and the Kurds of Syria.

2. For the next 25-years, Syria must unconditionally not only cut off aid to terrorists like Hamas and Hizbullah, but must also abstain from any acts of violence against its neighbors and must promote courageously religious co-existence. Real peacemakers cannot also be hybrid sectarians, claiming Alawite minority status while killing other minorities or claiming to be Muslims to manipulate other Muslims into committing acts of terror.

3. Immediately, Syria must bestow the Syrian citizenship upon all the Palestinians living today in Syria by adopting The Palestinian Refugee Claims Law intended for Palestinians to start new lives on Syrian soil as Syrian-Palestinians. Like Syrian-Americans living in the US can return home to visit Syria, Palestinian-Syrians, proud of their heritage, will be able to visit the West Bank or Gaza in any agreement Syria strikes with Israel. Palestinians who refuse the citizenship and the generous funds to start a new life will be asked to leave Syria. We need to stop using Palestinians as scapegoats to spread hate and discord.

4. Immediately, Syria must open all of its military bases and clandestine bio-chemical and nuclear programs for inspections by the international community. If we are sincere about joining the international community and about building Syria's economic future, no site should be off-limit. Building a nuclear program when we are still a Third World country is synonymous with a poor man attempting to build a wheat silo while hardly affording a loaf of bread.

5. Immediately, Syria must unconditionally not only peel away from the mullahs of Iran but publicly denounce their illicit and violent activities. Any support Syria lends to the hate culture others promote will sooner or later afflict the originators and supporters of these messages because of the glass houses they live in.

6. Immediately, Syria must accept Lebanon's independence and sovereignty by affirming all UN Resolutions, in support of Lebanon, adopted since 2005. Furthermore, Syria must submit, before the international tribunal, all the facts about the orders Assad issued to kill Hariri. Syria must also order all of its operatives in Lebanon to return to Syria and its friends in Lebanon to cease and desist. A safe Lebanon ensures security in the Levant and a Lebanon in turmoil has negative repercussions beyond anyone's control. The more nations believe Lebanon is an arena to settle their disputes, the more instability the region will experience. No arena, no fights.

7. Immediately, Syria must allow the Iraqi nation to flourish and prosper by sealing its borders for any terrorists passing through and by admitting to all the past acts of terror promoted by Assad and the Ba'ath Party of Syria. Syria must also ask all the Iraqi Ba'athists residing in Syria and dreaming of an Iraqi power grab to leave the country immediately. A democratic and free Iraq is to the benefit of all its neighbors.

Only after these conditions, so beneficial to Syria's future, are met, can the peace Syrians and Israelis yearn for be achieved between our two countries, otherwise Syria is ill-equipped today to regain control of the Golan Heights under a hybrid Assad; one who continues to use violence to stabilize his aberrant regime.

Farid Ghadry is president of the Reform Party of Syria, a US-based dissident movement for a free, democratic, and secular Syria.