Mideast expert questions Turkey's role

JERUSALEM, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- A Mideast expert questions whether Turkey should mediate Israeli-Syrian peace talks because Turkey has an interest in ensuring Syria gets the Sea of Galilee.

Syria's main source of water, the Euphrates River, is drying up, and Turkey which shares a border, stops its water in its territory, leaving Syria with a dwindling water supply, Dr. Guy Bechor said in an opinion piece published on the Web site Ynetnews.com.

Estimates project the Euphrates will dry up in a decade, he wrote. Drought has plagued Syria for years and threatens the country's second major water source, the Assi River, which also is drying up, he said. Illegal wells dug by residents over the years are no longer in use.

Bechor, an Arab affairs expert and head of the Middle Eastern Studies department at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, said he based his figures on a study conducted by the United Nations published on the al-Arabiya Web site.

Bechor said Syria's ruling Baath party is to blame for the situation because during the 1960's the party forced farmers to shift from herding on semi-arid land to growing grain and ignored the thousands of illegal wells dug by farmers to water the grain. Anyone who opposed the move was jailed, Bechor said.

Syria wants to get water needed for its farmlands from the Sea of Galilee, he said. If that occurs, Israel's main source of water will be compromised.

Bechor questioned whether Israel should pay the price for Syria's failure and choose Turkey to act as a mediator between Israel and Syria when and if peace negotiations resume. Turkey clearly has an interest in making sure Syria gets the Sea of Galilee, he said.

Turkey has mediated a number of rounds of indirect peace talks between Syrian and Israeli officials in an effort to secure a peace agreement.