Mr Clinton asked, in a report of the minutes of the meeting broadcast on Saudi television. Up until 1967, the year of the Six-Day War when the Golan Heights were seized, I would swim in the Sea of Galilee, I would have barbecues there, I ate fish. Mr Clinton impressed on Mr Assad the need to help the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, achieve his objective of withdrawing from the Golan Heights in return for peace, emphasising that the Syrians needed to recognise that Mr Barak was having trouble with his governing coalition. But Mr Assad said he was in no rush to reach a peace accord with Israel. For my part, we can wait for years.
Nothing is on fire.
It's not good to be hasty. In Washington, Mr Clinton said that he was waiting for Mr Assad to make the next move. The ball is in his court now and I am looking forward to hearing from him. Mr Ittamar Rabinovich, the Israeli ambassador to the United States from 1992 to 1996 and head of the peace talks with Syria, said that the outcome of Mr Clinton's meeting with Mr Assad did not surprise him. He never rises to the historic moment.