Syria welcomed on Sunday Turkeyâs initiative to mediate for peace with Israel but said any talks should build on previous negotiations, a condition the Jewish state has rejected.
| So I guess the mediation's over, huh? |
Israel also accepted Turkeyâs offer, but Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said: âThere is still a lot to be desired before we can say we are entering negotiations.â Reaction to Turkeyâs gesture came as Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said that Saudi Arabia had renewed its initiative calling for a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world.
| And everybody seems to take that seriously... |
Syrian Information Minister Ahmed al-Hassan told reporters he wished Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan success in his plans to play a role in the peace process. He said Syria hoped Erdogan would convince âIsrael to give up its stubbornness and lack of commitment to (UN) Security Council resolutionsâ. On Saturday, Erdogan said Ankara would start an initiative to mediate between the two foes, saying Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Israeli government had responded positively to Turkeyâs offer. Israel, technically at war with Syria, has said any new talks should start from scratch. But Hassan said: âWe have and we still do reiterate that the negotiations should be resumed from the point they stopped at.â
Israel has said it will not accept any conditions for the revival of US-sponsored talks that collapsed in 2000 over the future of the strategic Golan Heights, captured by Israel in a 1967 war. The resumption of talks from the point reached in 2000 would effectively force Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to agree, even before sitting down at the negotiating table, to pullout from almost all of the Golan Heights.
| Which'd be stupid on his part, and he's not stupid. |
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