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Damascus: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad begins a three-day visit to France on Saturday, for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy, after years of being shunned by former French leader Jacques Chirac.
Bashar and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will encounter each other for the first time on Sunday at a European Union-Mediterranean summit in Paris.
While the two Middle East adversaries are unlikely to hold private talks, Sarkozy would get credit for any sign of a continued thaw in their relationship because the gathering was his idea.
"Olmert and the Syrians will capture the show," said Alfred Tovias, head of the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at Occupied Jerusalem's Hebrew University. For Sarkozy, "it will be a diplomatic coup because of the fact that they met and will be meeting regularly every two years, even if they don't speak to one another."
Israel and Syria have held indirect, Turkish-mediated talks since May. Top officials from the two countries haven't met since 2000 when talks broke down between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al Shara. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 54, also plans to attend the summit.
The earlier Israeli-Syrian negotiations collapsed over the Golan Heights, a border zone that Israel seized in the 1967 Six- Day War. Syria wants the territory back. At issue is access to the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main water source and the Jordan River's outlet at the western edge of the region. Israel's fears losing access to the water if Syria regains sovereignty of the strategic highlands.
Asked about possible Bashar-Olmert talks, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert, 62, said, "it appears, unfortunately, that the time is not yet ripe." Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper cited Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Al Moallem on July 6 as saying Bashar and Olmert won't meet on the summit sidelines. Moallem was quoted as saying ties between the two will "warm up" this summer.
Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 80, will co- host the meeting of 43 heads of state, with an agenda that includes curbing illegal immigration, fighting terrorism and creating jobs.
- With inputs from agencies
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