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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| No headway in peace talks with Israel: Syrian FM |
| 2008-08-26 |
| DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria's foreign minister said Monday that no headway has been achieved in several rounds of indirect negotiations with Israel. Walid Al Moallem said the talks mediated by Turkey ‘regrettably’ have not progressed enough for the two parties to hold direct negotiations but added both Israel and Syria were ‘serious’ about solving outstanding issues. Moallem said both sides are still discussing outstanding issues, particularly ‘the determination of the 4th of June, 1967 line,’ a reference to the size of Syrian territory on the Golan Heights that Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war. Direct Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations under US sponsorship collapsed in 2000 amid disagreement over the extent of Israeli withdrawal. Israel then offered to turn over the Golan Heights to Syria, but refused to accede to a Syrian demand for access to the Sea of Galilee. Israel relies on the reservoir for its fresh water supplies. The Syrian foreign minister was speaking Monday at a joint press conference with the visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who expressed his country's willingness to assist in the peace process if both parties requested it. Syrian President Bashar Assad had said in an interview Thursday with the Arabic language Russia Today TV station that the next round of indirect negotiations planned for next week will be ‘decisive.’ He did not elaborate. Assad said Syria wished to give peace a chance although ‘I have no confidence in Israel's peace intentions.’ He added that the talks have failed until now to produce an Israeli commitment to withdraw from the strategic Golan Heights, which it occupied from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War. Assad, during a meeting with Kouchner in Damascus Monday, said that ending Israel's occupation of Arab territories ‘is the only guarantee to achieve permanent security and peace in the Middle East,’ Syria's official news agency SANA reported. It said Assad discussed with Kouchner the situation in the Middle East and the Caucasus, and stressed the need to ‘adopt dialogue and diplomacy as the only ways to solve conflicts.’ |
| Posted by:Steve White |