Assad: Israeli regime not partner for peace

Syrian President Bashar Assad said yesterday that peace with Israel was "impossible," since the Netanyahu government is not a real partner for talks, French news agency AFP reported.

"The establishment of peace in the Middle East is impossible because of the absence of an Israeli partner," Assad told reporters in Damascus.

Israel and Syria conducted indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators last year, with Syria suspending those talks as a reaction to the Gaza war that began in December 2008.

Assad also called the recent Israeli approval of a plan to build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood a "real obstacle" that will create "more wars and tension" in the entire region.

The Syrian president told AFP that his country was genuinely interested in reaching a comprehensive peace with Israel "through Turkish-sponsored indirect negotiations," but said the current political climate in the region would not enable such ties, AFP reported.

He added that the Israeli government "cannot be considered a partner as long as it responds to calls for peace with settlements and the Judaization of holy sites."

Last month, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that the stalled peace process with Syria could augur ill for the future of the Middle East.

"In the absence of an arrangement with Syria, we are liable to enter a belligerent clash with it that could reach the point of an all-out, regional war," Barak told senior Israel Defense Forces officers.