Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is currently conducting staff work to prepare for the possibility of a renewed peace process with Syria, sources in the Foreign Ministry told Haaretz.

No conclusions have yet been presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as the project is not finished. However, a ministry source said, "If the prime minister decides that he wants to hear it, we have a prepared plan - from the operational aspect as well."

The project has included a series of discussions between Livni and senior ministry staffers with the goal of mapping Israel's vital interests in any such talks. The participating staffers are the same ones who formulated Israel's diplomatic exit strategy for the Second Lebanon War.

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Livni began the project shortly after the war ended last August, but it has intensified in recent months, due to the combination of Syria's public calls for negotiations and intelligence information indicating that Damascus is preparing for a possible war.

According to the Foreign Ministry sources, Livni upgraded the Syrian issue immediately after the war, and did so again about two months ago. "The foreign minister understood that she had to study the Syrian issue in-depth," explained one of the sources.
Livni asked the ministry's Political Research Center to prepare a detailed intelligence survey of Syria's demands, which she has since received.

She also asked ministry officials for a detailed map of the risks and opportunities entailed in talks with Syria. One of the key assessments she received was that Syria is not yet militarily ready for war with Israel and that its desire for negotiations is genuine.

Haaretz reported last August that Livni had appointed Yaki Dayan, the former head of her diplomatic bureau, to coordinate staff work on Syria. Dayan submitted his conclusions a few months ago, and ministry sources said that the current project is meant to update and expand Dayan's work, inter alia in light of the war's results.

Livni is very close to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Rice has recently promoted a change in American policy toward Syria, as evidenced by her meeting last week with her Syrian counterpart, Walid Moallem, during a regional conference on Iraq. However, Rice told Israel that this discussion dealt solely with Iraq.

The Foreign Ministry responded Sunday that it is currently conducting staff work "on several issues, among them the Syrian issue, as part of the ministry's ongoing work. The foreign minister's stance is that any public discussion of the matter can only hurt." It added that Livni and Olmert discuss the Syrian issue from time to time and that "there is coordination on diplomatic issues."

Avi Issacharoff adds:

Meanwhile, Rice has decided to postpone a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority that had been scheduled for mid-month, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. While the reason is unclear, it is apparently connected to the political crisis in Israel sparked by the Winograd report.

During her visit, Rice had hoped to secure consent from Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to a U.S. document detailing performance benchmarks for both sides.

The Prime Minister's Bureau was contacted for its response, but no comment was given.