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Assad: Israel wants to talk due to war failures By Yoav Stern Damascus suspects Israel decided to return to negotiations due to its failings in the Second Lebanon War and the realization that it could not live securely among its neighbors without peace, Syrian President Bashar Assad told an Indian newspaper. "The Israelis used to think that with time they were going to be stronger and any opposition to their policies would be weaker, but actually what happened was the opposite," Assad told The Hindu, in an interview published Friday. "Now, the Israelis learned that without peace they cannot live safely and Israel cannot be safe." Advertisement "I think this is true especially after the war on Lebanon and because of the result of that war inside the Israeli society; this is the main incentive for the Israelis to move toward peace," he added. Assad also said that Israel never asked Syria to cut its relations with Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran as a precondition for peace negotiations. When asked by The Hindu what the Syrian response was to such a request, Assad said: "Nobody asked us to do this. The Israelis have been talking about negotiations without preconditions. So, they cannot ask for conditions for the negotiations, and they have not asked, either." He added: "Iran does not interfere in Syrian issues. They support the Syrian cause whether we are happy or they are happy, and that's why the relations between Syria and Iran are very strong." Israel and Syria announced last month that they had agreed to hold indirect peace talks, after an eight-year hiatus, through Turkish mediation. At the heart of the negotiations is the the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. In the interview with The Hindu, Assad reiterated the Syrian demand that Israel return the Golan Heights in exchange for peace. When asked what Syria could give Israel in return, Assad said: "We [Syria] don't have something to give, but we have something to achieve together, which is peace... It is something we achieve together, but Israel has the land and should give it back." In the interview, Assad refuted claims that a Syrian facility bombed by Israel in September was allegedly being used for nuclear development under the guidance of North Korea. Assad said the story "was fabricated 100 percent," adding: "How could it be nuclear, where is the radiation? Where are the protections of this facility? How can you build such a facility under the daily watch of satellites?" The Syrian president said yes to the question of whether the U.S. was trying to create an atmosphere of suspicion against Damascus. "This is the image of this [U.S.] administration; everybody in the world still remembers what happened in Iraq when they had all that evidence, but then it was proved that everything was fabricated; even Colin Powell confessed in an interview that he was not truthful, and we all know the same, and most of the countries know about the problem between Syria and the U.S., and they always try to find traps for Syria. This is reality." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Snoop Dogg in Israel American rapper Snoop Dogg slated to perform in Ramat Gan. Late date Scientists revive 2,000-year-old date seed found at Masada.

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