During the 1990s, there were constant negotiations between Israel and Syria regarding a mediation of conflicts and an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights but a peace treaty did not come to fruition.[20] The main stumbling block seems to involve 66 square kilometers of territory in the Jordan Valley that lies west of the 1923 Palestinian Mandate border, but which had been seized by Syria in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and retained by it under the 1949 armistice agreement with Israel.[21] Arab countries support Syria's position in the formula which calls on Israel "to return to the 1967 borders". (See 2002 Arab Peace Initiative)