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Official: PM wrote to Assad to test desire for peace By Haaretz Correspondent and AP , By Barak Ravid Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has dispatched some 20 messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad during the past year to better assess Syria's intentions before the possible resumption of talks between the two countries, according to a senior minister also in the security-political cabinet. But the same source said Assad's responses did not meet Israeli expectations and Olmert believes that at this time it is not possible to initiate negotiations with Syria. Advertisement For his part, the Syrian president blamed Israel yesterday for the lack of progress. "Israel has rejected all peace initiatives that have been brought before it during the past three years and has responded with massacres and construction of settlements," he told the Arab League summit which began in Damascus yesterday. According to the senior Israeli minister, most efforts for contact with Syria were made through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but also through others, including U.S. congressmen and various European officials. The messages to Assad included attempts to understand what the agenda of the talks between the two countries would include, and whether Assad was willing to include in the talks his country's ties with Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian militant organizations. But the answers Israel received - and whose content was not made available to Haaretz - were not satisfactory for Israel, according to the senior minister. "Each one of the envoys returned from Damascus with empty hands," the minister said. "The sense was that Assad is captive in the hands of senior figures of the Syrian regime who are opposed to talks with Israel and are not interested in breaking off the alliance with Iran." Some of the foreign envoys who met with Assad said that they were surprised to see in his office, alongside photos of his dead father, photographs of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, which led them to believe that Syria is strongly committed to an alliance with Iran and Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at a briefing of diplomats at the Labor Party's headquarters in Tel Aviv Friday that "in the end, Israel will meet Syria either in the field of battle or in the negotiating table." "Syria is a weak country with many problems, but under certain conditions Israel will be willing to open the door to it," Barak added. "Israel considers negotiations with Syria and removing Syria from the circle of extremists as central to its policy." Barak also referred to the situation along the northern border in his meeting with the foreign diplomats and said that the IDF is readying itself for any eventuality. "It would not be a good idea for someone to try something against us at this time," Barak said. "We are following what is going on in the North, the growing strength of Hezbollah with Syrian backing and the developments over the border in Syria. Israel is the most powerful country in the region and this is what enables it to stand on guard but also try to seek [peace] agreements," Barak said. On Friday, Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said in an interview on Israel Radio that "Israel is making every effort to restore Syria to the negotiating table. The efforts are constant and are being done through common friends." Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, which is boycotting the Arab League summit along with Egypt and Jordan, to protest Syrian meddling in Lebanese politics, said yesterday that Syria should be punished for blocking a resolution to Lebanon's political crisis. For more than a year, Lebanon has been the scene of a proxy struggle between the United States and its Arab allies, who back Prime Minister Fouad Seniora's government, and Syria, an ally of Iran and the Shi'ite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan embarrassed Assad by boycotting the Damascus summit. In a diplomatic snub, they sent low-level officials instead to the gathering. Lebanon boycotted the summit completely, accusing Damascus of preventing the election of a new Lebanese president in order to destabilize the country and reassert its control over its neighbor. Bookmark to del.icio.us   My land, my country Israeli Arabs mark 32nd Land Day in demonstrations across the country. One voice on Israel It's hard to find differences in U.S. candidates' promises on peace process.

Today Online 'PM passed 20 messages to Assad, but he disappointed us' Responses: 76 Bush: Peace deal by 2009 likely if road map fulfilled Responses: 158 Dutch Jewish group: Anti-Islam film is 'counterproductive' Responses: 171 Editorial: Israel must help Bush, Rice's belated peace effort succeed Responses: 42 More Headlines 00:00 Bush 'optimistic' on 2009 Mideast peace deal 22:17 Israeli Arab leader on Land Day: We'll fight Israel's 'rising fascism' 00:01 Study: 60% of Israel's poor are ultra-Orthodox and Arabs 21:55 Vatican: Islam surpasses Roman Catholicism as world's largest religion 23:56 Barak to bereaved parents: Labor to quit gov't sooner than anticipated 22:33 Genealogy Web site attempts to map out entire Jewish people 01:29 Police: Bnei Brak has by far the highest rate of sexual offenses 20:16 Netanyahu: No substitute for Israeli control in West Bank 22:54 On Israel, Clinton, Obama and McCain all aim to be like Bush 21:42 Gaza protesters demand that Egypt release Hamas militants 21:20 CIA chief: Al-Qaida recruiting 'Western'-looking fighters 00:39 Motor racing body mum as president accused in Nazi role-playing sex scandal 23:17 Dutch Jewish group: Anti-Islam film is 'counterproductive' Previous Editions Select Day 30 mar 28 mar 27 mar 26 mar 25 mar 24 mar 23 mar 21 mar 20 mar 19 mar 18 mar 17 mar

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