Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held indirect talks with Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad through an American mediator, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed quoted Israeli Professor Itamar Rabinovich saying yesterday.
Rabinovich led the Israeli negotiation team with Syria during the reign of late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993. He said the talks continued until a very short time before the start of the Syrian revolution.
The talks were mediated by Jewish-American businessman Ronald Lauder.
The professor said the Israeli-Syrian talks peaked in September 1993 when Rabin agreed to concede the occupied Golan Heights, but the Syrian hesitation pushed the Israelis to accelerate talks with the PLO and sign the Oslo Accords.