Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres played down on Sunday prospects for relaunching talks with Syria over a land-for-peace deal. “There have always been intermediaries... we have to verify all Syrian declarations on the possibility of starting negotiations, in the open or secretly, and we have done this,” Peretz told public radio.Israel has reaffirmed its readiness to talk with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but is seeking assurances in advance that Syria would distance itself from Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas and Palestinian militants, Israeli officials said. But after leaking the existence of secret channels via Turkey and Germany to ask Syria the price it would be willing to pay for the return of the occupied Golan Heights, Israel says it is still waiting for a definitive answer.
Asked if the time had come to talk peace with Syria, Peres told reporters: “The problem is the Syrians are not ready and are unwilling to negotiate directly with Israel. They want to do it through the United States. The United States said: ‘Gentlemen, if you want to negotiate, you have to stop being a supporter of terror and you have to stop supporting the toppling down of the prime minister of Lebanon - stop supporting the Hezbollah. And there is where it is stuck for the time being.”
There has been no public response from Damascus to the news of the Israeli diplomatic approaches.