Syria is not seeking a military solution for its conflict with Israel and is ready to resume peace talks, Syria's foreign minister said Wednesday.
The remarks by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem came as U.S. President George W. Bush was in Israel Wednesday on the first day of his eight-day Mideast trip aimed at pushing the Israelis and Palestinians toward a peace agreement.
"We are not looking for a military solution (with Israel) at all," Moallem said in an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel. For this reason, we participated in the 1991 (Mideast) peace process in Madrid and engaged in talks with the Israelis for 10 years under U.S. sponsorship.
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Referring to the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference held in November in Annapolis, Maryland, which Syria attended, Moallem said, We went to Annapolis and we are ready to resume peace negotiations on the Syrian track in a way that does not contradict progress on the Palestinian track.
On December 30, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter said after meeting with President Bashar Assad in Damascus that the Syrian leader is ready for peace talks with Israel, halted since 2000.
Formal U.S.-sponsored Israel-Syria talks neared agreement in 2000 but broke down over final border and peace arrangements. Syria demands the full return of the Golan Heights, the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Moallem said he didn't see Bush's Mideast trip as a step forward for the peace process, not even between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
"There is no progress neither on the Palestinian track, nor on the Syrian one," he said.
Moallem criticized the U.S. foreign policy and hit back at Bush's criticism of Assad, saying that the world has lost patience with the U.S. president's policies.
"The U.S.A., under the Bush Administration, has a black and white foreign policy and this is unrealistic," he said.
Bush has asked Syria to choose between its alliance with Iran and anti-Israel militant groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas, and its relations with the Western world. Last month, Bush rejected dialogue with the Syrian leader, saying his patience ran out on President Assad a long time ago.
Moallem responded, "The world has lost patience with Bush's policies."
U.S.-Syrian relations soured after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a car bombing. Washington pulled its ambassador out of the country over suspected Syrian involvement in the attack, which Damascus denies.
The U.S. has also criticized Syria for not doing enough to prevent militants from crossing its border into Iraq - although American officials have said recently that Damascus has stepped up its efforts.
The two countries have accused each other of meddling in Lebanon, where the Western-backed government is locked in a fierce power struggle with the pro-Syrian opposition
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