135. Telegram From the Embassy in Syria to the Department of State1
6626. For Secretary From Murphy. Department Pass White House for Dr. Brzezinski. Subject: Assad Letter to Carter. Ref: State 246487.2
1. Met with FonMin Khaddam afternoon October 21 at his apartment to receive Assad’s letter in reply to President Carter’s October 13 message (reftel). Signed original forwarded by pouch. Khaddam’s presentation and Embassy comments by immediately following septels. Following is unofficial translation by Syrian Presidency.
Begin text:
“His Excellency Jimmy Carter
President of the United States of America
Washington
Dear Mr. President:
I received your letter dated October 13, 1977 and I was pleased with your expressed determination to continue efforts aimed at establishing just and lasting peace, and with your conviction of the importance of moving quickly into a new phase of the search for peace.
[Page 714]I also appreciate your concern with a problem which has become the gravest among world problems, and your stress on the extreme importance of reconvening the Geneva Peace Conference in order to reach the goal to which we all aspire, namely the goal of establishing just and lasting peace in this sensitive area of the world.
Your letter has confirmed the impression conveyed to me by our Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Halim Khaddam, following his discussions with you and with Secretary of State Mr. Cyrus Vance. It also confirmed the desire and determination you expressed to him, to overcome obstacles on the road to the peace conference.
As I thank you for this great interest and for your endeavors, I assure you that the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic is determined to continue its efforts to achieve progress, because peace is a necessity for our region as well as for the whole world. The policy of obduracy and rejection exercised by Israel will not make us give up our belief in the importance and necessity of peace.
Dear Mr. President, with all this in mind, and following the receipt of your letter and the working paper attached thereto, I gave much thought to what can be done, and I considered all aspects of the situation, with a view to finding a working formula that can push forward the movement towards just peace.
I want to mention that I am only concerned with the working formula in as much as it is linked to the final settlement, and that form concerns me only in as much as it is linked to the substance. Therefore, we have to seek a formula which serves the ultimate objective, namely achieving a solution which should be at the same time comprehensive and just.
Analysis of the question under discussion confirms that its basic components are the following three main elements:
1. The Palestine problem.
2. The territories occupied in 1967.
3. The state of war.
Therefore, the sought formula should make it possible to deal with these three issues in the light of the United Nations Resolutions.
So, I consider that the broad lines of the working formula could be as follows:
1. A unified Arab delegation to the Peace Conference will be formed, composed of Syria, Egypt, Jordan and the P.L.O., this being consistent with the nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I am sure you are aware that, throughout history, peace negotiations which followed the various wars fought by several parties, were carried out by all the parties concerned together.
[Page 715]2. The plenary of the Peace Conference will discuss the general and shared issues, which are the substantive questions, with a view to finding solutions for them in the light of the United Nations Resolutions. The most important of these substantive issues are:
(1) The Palestine problem.
(2) The question of ending the occupation of the Arab territories.
(3) The question of ending the state of war, and the arrangements and guarantees of peace.
3. Following the adoption (Arabic “i graar”—also translatable as “settling”, “confirmation” or “acknowledgement”, which have a shared nature), subcommittees will be set up to make geographical arrangements (geographical subcommittees) for the implementation of the agreements concerning the substantive issues.
Dear President Carter, such a formula is apt to put an end to many of the complications. Thus, on the one hand we would have dis-cussed in the plenary issues of a shared nature, and on the other hand we would have adopted the subcommittees for geographical arrangements.
As I have already mentioned, Mr. President, there are questions which are not of a bilateral nature such as the conditions and guarantees of peace, the question of the withdrawal and the Palestine problem. All the more so if we proceed from the desire that peace should be comprehensive. Bilateral negotiations may abort chances of comprehensiveness of peace.
Dear Mr. President, in sending to you these proposals which I consider as a positive and constructive contribution, despite my conviction that we still consider our point of view concerning the committees (organized by) topics as pertinent, I am motivated by the desire to avert a stalemate at a certain point, and by our conviction of the importance of continuing search for all means conducive to eliminating obstacles and achieving progress. I am hopeful that these ideas will constitute a practical and useful contribution towards attaining the objective of establishing just, lasting and comprehensive peace.
I wish to renew to you, Mr. President, my expression of thanks for your efforts wishing you happiness, and your country progress and prosperity. Sincerely, Hafez al-Assad. Damascus, October 21, 1977.
End text.
2. Department pass Amman, Cairo, and Tel Aviv.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P840070–0959. Secret; Immediate; Nodis.↩
- Telegram 246487 to Damascus, October 14, is described in Document 131.↩