'Syria willing to resume talks as soon as Israel is ready'

Damascus is prepared to resume indirect peace negotiations with Israel and is waiting for the latter to take initiative, Syria's newly appointed ambassador to Turkey said on Tuesday.

On his first official visit to Turkey, Nadil Kabalan thanked Ankara for its "decent role" in mediating the negotiations, and urged continued participation.

"The ball is in Israel's court right now. Whenever Israel thinks it is ready, then we are ready to talk," Nadil Kabalan told the state-run Anatolian Agency.

Kabalan added that Syria was committed to following "peace as a strategic option," as long as Israel vowed to return land it has occupied in war.

"We have chosen peace as a strategic option and we are determined to go down that road so long as the territories under occupation are returned to their owners," the envoy said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in March that a clear position by the United States on Israel-Syria peace negotiations was essential to progress in the talks.

We don't expect much, at least in the foreseeable future, within this framework," Assad said. "Especially since [U.S. President Barack Obama] has announced clear positions on Iraq and Afghanistan, but we haven't heard an American position yet on the peace process."

The Syrian leader also reiterated his assertion that Damascus would engage in peace talks with any Israeli government, whatever its political orientation.

Syria has conditioned peace talks on Israel as long as they focused on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.