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Last update - 23:11 15/11/2009
Israel says ready for direct peace talks with Syria
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Tags: Ehud Barak Syria, Israel news 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel was prepared to renew peace negotiations with Syria, adding that he would rather the talks be direct then held through mediation.

However, he said, a mediator would suffice if that was the only way negotiations could be renewed.

Such a mediator must be fair, he said, reiterating his earlier comments that Turkey no longer fit the role as it had when the negotiations began. Israel and Turkey have been embroiled in a crisis of relations over the last few months, following steps taken by Ankara to express its opposition to Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip earlier this year.
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Netanyahu said Sunday that France would serve as an acceptable substitute.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday also pledged that Israel was interested in renewing peace negotiations with Syria, after Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday questioned Israel's will to restart the talks.

"Israel has an interest in returning to negotiations with Syria," Barak said.

He added that a peace accord with Israel's longtime enemy was important in terms of Israel's vital interests, "such as security arrangements, deterrence, demilitarization, water and diplomatic relations."


On Friday, Assad welcomed renewed indirect discussions mediated by Turkey, but appeared to dismiss suggestions of a direct meeting with Netanyahu.

"What would we talk about, the menu or the return of land?" Assad told reporters after talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai, meanwhile, warned on Sunday that any negotiations with Syria would be meaningless while the country was still allied to Iran.

"Assad says he wants peace, but in practice he is embracing and being embraced by the axis of evil, and therefore every dialogue with it is virtual," Yishai said.

The vice prime minister, Silvan Shalom, spoke on Sunday of Syria's ties to another of Israel's enemies, the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah, Israel Radio reported. He was quoted as saying that Israel must demand that Damascus cease transferring weapons to the Iranian proxy, and stop backing terrorism.

Also Sunday, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, under whose premiership Israel held indirect peace negotiations, was quoted as saying that the two countries could hold peace talks without international mediation.

"Both sides know what they have to do in order to reach an agreement," Army Radio quoted Olmert as saying. "There is no need for a mediator or for indirect contacts."

Earlier in the day, Haaretz reported that French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered last week to host an international summit in Paris to break the deadlock in the Middle East peace process, in which Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Assad would participate.


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