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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Israel eyeing direct talks with Syria |
| 2009-08-13 |
| Failing in decades of indirect peace talks with Syria, Israel is now seeking to reach a comprehensive peace treaty with Damascus through direct negotiations. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Wednesday that under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Israel will not resume Turkish-mediated peace talks with Syria. "We have enormous respect and great appreciation for the Turkish efforts. But they have not succeeded - not because of the Turks," Danny Ayalon told Reuters, accusing Syria of intransigence. "We have just benefited from the experience that shows that proximity talks have not worked," Ayalon added. "If they [Syria] are really serious about achieving peace, and not just a peace process, which may serve them to extricate themselves from international isolation, if they are really serious, they will come and sit with us." Last year, Israel and Syria held four rounds of indirect talks to reach a comprehensive peace agreement through Turkish mediators. However, Syria formally suspended the talks in protest at Israel's three-week-long offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which left about 1,400 Palestinians dead at the turn of the year. Israel has so far refused to heed Damascus' precondition for resumption of peace talks. Syria -- favoring indirect talks with Israel -- has repeatedly said that it will resume peace talks with Tel Aviv only after a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured following the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel and Syria have officially been at war since then. Israeli officials have so far refused to leave Golan Heights, saying the plateau is too strategically important to be returned. Golan Heights gives Israel access to the Sea of Galilee -- Israel's main source of fresh water. |
| Posted by:Fred |