Advertisement A document that Dr. Nimrod Novik, a former political advisor to Vice Premier Shimon Peres, disseminated last October to members of the Council for Peace and Security also said that Washington knew about the talks. "While the administration is taking care not to broadcast a U-turn in its approach as long as the president has not given it an explicit green light, the signs of a change in direction are multiplying," Novik wrote.
"During the fighting in Lebanon, former senior [U.S.] officials were authorized to speak with Damascus, within a narrow mandate, while Pentagon and State Department officials support a change in the policy toward Hamas and quote the president in this context."
Geoffrey Aronson, of the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, who helped arrange the secret meetings, also participated last year in meetings organized by Alastair Crooke, the European Union's former security envoy to the territories, with key Hamas and Hezbollah members.
These meetings, which took place in Beirut, were also attended by two former senior Central Intelligence Agency officials. Haaretz reported at the time that Cheney also know about the existence of these meetings, and received regular reports from the American participants.
Novik wrote that "during secret talks via a third party a few years ago, the Syrians already demonstrated much more flexibility than they did at Shepherdstown on matters such as the pace of the withdrawal, implementation of normalization and creative solutions ('a peace park') for the area north of [Lake] Kinneret. Then, too, it was Israel that refused direct, official talks."
The Shepherdstown talks were formal Israeli-Syrian negotiations started by Ehud Barak's government.
Meretz-Yahad Chairman Yossi Beilin said in media interviews Tuesday that the European mediator in the secret talks was Nicholas Lang, head of the Middle East desk at the Swiss Foreign Ministry.
Lang also played a key role in organizing the Israeli-Palestinian meetings at which Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo drafted the Geneva Initiative, their proposal for a final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Liel, who was the driving force behind the secret meetings with Suleiman, is one of the people closest to Beilin.
Raviv Drucker, of Channel 10 television, reported last night that Lang met not long ago with Shalom Turjeman, Ehud Olmert's political adviser, and presented him with the draft. According to Drucker, Turjeman told Lang that Israel has no interest in the understandings. Drucker also said that Lang visited Damascus several times during the talks, met with Syrian FM Farouk Shara, and reported that he believed the Syrian leadership genuinely wanted a deal.
Syrian paper: Peace requires withdrawal from Golan, not secret talks
Peace with Syria requires an Israeli commitment to surrender the strategic Golan Heights and cannot be achieved through secret negotiations, a Syrian state newspaper said Wednesday in response to the Haaretz report.
Syria's official Al-Thawra newspaper said in an editorial Wednesday that the Haaretz report was false, and added that "peace cannot be achieved in the darkness of secret negotiations."
Peace requires an Israeli commitment to surrender the whole of the Golan Heights, the paper said. It indicated the current Israeli government was too "immature" for peacemaking.
More on the Israel-Syria contacts:
Israeli, Syrian representatives reach secret understandings
Both sides deny Haaretz report of back-channel talks with Syria
The full text of the draft document
Israel (rot) und Syrien (grün)

 Laut einem Bericht der israelischen Zeitung „Haaretz“ vom 16. Januar 2007 haben israelische und syrische Unterhändler zwischen 2004 und 2006 über einen Plan verhandelt, der für Frieden zwischen den beiden verfeindeten Nachbarstaaten sorgen sollte. Der Plan beinhalte eine Entmilitarisierung des israelisch-syrischen Grenzgebietes, das laut Plan von der UNO überwacht werden soll, sowie die Rückgabe der Golanhöhen an Syrien. Im Gegenzug wolle Syrien seine Unterstützung für Hamas und Hisbollah einstellen und auf Distanz zum Iran gehen.

Bild:Golan 92.jpg|left|thumb|Israelische Siedlungen in den Golanhöhen (1992)

Der Plan sei im August 2005 ausgearbeitet und während einer Reihe von Treffen, die vom syrischen Präsidenten Baschar al-Assad initiiert worden waren, in Europa aktualisiert worden. Das letzte dieser Treffen soll letzten Sommer während des Libanon-Kriegs gewesen sein. Die Verhandlungen sollen mit Wissen des damaligen israelischen Ministerpräsidenten Ariel Sharon stattgefunden haben, dessen Regierung von einem europäischen Vermittler über die Treffen auf dem Laufenden gehalten worden sein soll. Auch US-Vize Dick Cheney sei über die  Verhandlungen informiert gewesen, heißt es in einem inzwischen veröffentlichten Bericht des „Haaretz“.

Bild:Dick Cheney.jpg|right|thumb|U.S. Vize Präsident Dick Cheney

Auf Seiten Israels soll Dr. Alon Liel, ehemaliger Generaldirektor des israelischen Außenministeriums, an den Treffen teilgenommen haben. Zu acht gesonderten Terminen sollen neben einem europäischen Vermittler auch Syriens Vize-Präsident Farouk al-Sharaa, Außenminister Walid Muallem sowie ein General des syrischen Geheimdienstes an den Gesprächen beteiligt gewesen sein. Die Verhandlungen sollen beendet worden sein, als Syrien die Teilnahme eines stellvertretenden syrischen Ministers und eines Generaldirektors eines israelischen Ministeriums sowie eines offiziellen amerikanischen Funktionärs an den Treffen forderte und Israel diese Forderungen ablehnte.

Mittlerweile wurde bekannt, dass die Gespräche in der Schweiz stattgefunden haben sollen. Syrien und Israel seien dabei von Nicolas Lang, dem Chef der Abteilung „Mittlerer Osten“ des Schweizer Außenministeriums, unterstützt worden.