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Last update - 02:56 18/06/2008
Will Olmert and Assad be sitting together at the same table?
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
Tags: peace talks, Israel, Syria 

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner announced Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad would be attending the Mediterranean Union Summit, scheduled for next month in Paris, which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had already expressed his plans to attend.

The meeting of the proposed Mediterranean Union is scheduled for July 13, and environmental issues - pollution of the Mediterranean, solar energy advances and projects dealing with water conservation and civil defense - are to top the agenda.

President Shimon Peres has also announced that he would be attending the summit.
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Kouchner, speaking before the French parliament, said that the representatives of the Israeli and Syrian governments would be sitting at the same table during the summit.

Syria and Israel are formally at war, but a cease-fire has held on the Golan Heights since 1974, a year after Syria launched a war that failed to regain the plateau captured by Israel seven years earlier. Indirect talks between the two countries under Turkish auspices were secretly launched last year, but only made public last month.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said the indirect peace talks, held in Turkey over the last few days, were a success, and that two more sessions have been planned for July.

The second round of publicized talks, which ended Monday, were "completed with success," and both the Syrian and Israeli mediators "left very satisfied, and have already started talking details," Babacan told journalists after a meeting with EU diplomats in Luxembourg.

"The calendar has been set for the next two meetings in July," he
said.

Babacan characterized the indirect talks, in which Turkish diplomats shuttled between Israeli and Syrian delegations, as an "exchange of views" between the two sides.

"I do not wish to raise expectations, because it is a very complex issue - not as complex as the Israeli-Palestinian issue, but complex," he said.

Syria and Israel have not held direct peace talks since January 2000, when negotiations collapsed because of a dispute over the future of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel whose return Syria insists on as a prerequisite for peace.

On Monday, Israeli President Shimon Peres called on his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, to join direct talks.

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    Religious pressure
    Tel Aviv supermarket chain agrees gradual Shabbat closure.
    Overgenerous diplomacy
    UN envoy: Israel has given Syria a 'huge gift' for free.
      1.   will not hold my breath 15:46  |  David G 17/06/08
      2.   ANY ISRAEL-SYRIAN DEAL MUST BE BASED ON "HATAY" MODEL 16:44  |  Joel Stein 17/06/08
      3.   everybody is happy 19:32  |  Leon Rosgarten 17/06/08
      4.   To # 3 Leon Rosgarten - You should be worried..... 20:14  |  Dolly 17/06/08
      5.   hatay type 21:20  |  17/06/08
      6.   Dolly, I am not worried at all 21:40  |  Leon Rosgarten 17/06/08
      7.   Hopefully Olmert will no longer be a player .. 22:19  |  redmike 17/06/08
      8.   ASSAD IS DECENT... 22:19  |  indrajaya 17/06/08
      9.   #3 - stop the medication and chill out ... 22:25  |  redmike 17/06/08
      10.   For Israel Holding the Golan is more important than peace... 22:27  |  Jean Van Daem 17/06/08
      11.   #1 - Israel and Syria have had a peacful border for 41 years! 22:29  |  redmike 17/06/08
      12.   Arab top agent in Israel,AG Mazuz will deflect moves to oust 22:50  |  Absolute Sweden 17/06/08
      13.   Who cares when the outcome is Israel gives Syria takes it all 23:00  |  Nach 17/06/08
      14.   #12 - you are looking for conspiracies that don`t exist! 23:27  |  redmike 17/06/08
      15.   No 23:50  |  Sahara 17/06/08
      16.   What is so terrible about sitting at ... 01:24  |  Edith 18/06/08
      17.   Indraya 01:56  |  siegfried buchwalte 18/06/08
      18.   Jean Daem # 10 for Israel everything is more important tha peacee 01:57  |  American in NY 18/06/08
      19.   The Only Place Olmert Should Be Sitting Is In Jail 02:13  |  Lousy Proscutor 18/06/08
      20.   what do you mean will they be;they have been longer than Israelis 04:03  |  glenna 18/06/08
      21.   Give Peace a Chance 05:29  |  Jane 18/06/08
      22.   Olmert is an Anti-Zionist why wouldnt assad sit with him ? 06:20  |  HENRY MANN 18/06/08
      23.   To Leon Rosgarten # 6 - You keep yours.... 07:47  |  Dolly 18/06/08
      24.   If Olmert is still around...... 07:57  |  Natasha 18/06/08
      25.   To redmike # 11 - Israel and Syria have had a peaceful border 08:15  |  Dolly 18/06/08
      26.   Will it matter? 08:25  |  Dror 18/06/08
      27.   But of course Olmert will be sitting together with Assad 08:29  |  The Threadmill 18/06/08
      28.   Good Question 08:47  |  Shimon Cleopas 18/06/08
      29.   Only in the the prison cells of Israel 08:49  |  Mike 18/06/08
      30.   OF COURSE THEY WILL... 09:40  |  Robert 18/06/08
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