Syria has disrupted efforts to free the Israel Defense Forces soldier captured by Hamas and interfered in attempts to defuse the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Monday.

Syria has also caused trouble within the Palestinian Authority, Tzipi Livni alleged. Whenever Hamas showed signs of cooperation with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Syria sent messages saying "don't do it," she said.

"It is not even about a Syrian interest," Livni told an audience at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in England. "They want to dictate the Palestinian conflict.

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"We heard the first abducted soldier was being held ... in Hamas hands and whenever there was a kind of chance to release him, the order came from Syria saying not to release him," she added.

In June, Hamas-linked gunmen tunneled from Gaza into Israel, attacked an IDF post and killed two soldiers, capturing the third. Israel has insisted the soldier be freed before any other moves are made. Hamas has said it is demanding freedom for large numbers of prisoners Israel is holding in return for the soldier.

Livni said Israel had lost a year of negotiations with the Palestinians after a Hamas victory in January's Palestinian legislative elections led to international sanctions and a divided and ineffectual government. She said Hamas should not have been allowed to take part in the elections because they sponsor terrorism.

"Democracy is not about voting but about values," she said. "There is a need to demand, any party, as part of the democratic system, to adopt the values of democracy before participating in elections. This is part of any democratic system in the world except in the Middle East."

Livni said she still believed in a two-state solution, and urged Palestinian moderates who share common ground with Israelis to work with them.