Deputy FM: Assad wants only peace process, not actual peace accord

Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said yesterday that Syrian President Bashar Assad was interested only in conducting a peace process with Israel, but not in actually reaching a peace accord.

"The Syrian president fully realizes that the price of peace would be opening up to the West, which is a threat to the stability of his regime," said Ayalon during a lecture in Be'er Sheva.

"However, by engaging in a peace process, he believes he would be able to extricate Syria from its international isolation."

Ayalon's comments came after Assad said Friday he could not set a date for resuming indirect peace talks with Israel because there was no one to talk to.

"We cannot talk about a date [for resuming the talks] because we don't have a partner," Assad said during a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Damascus.

But he added, "Syria is keen about peace as much as it is keen about the return of its occupied territories." Assad was referring to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Syrian leader also said Israel's three-week-long offensive against Hamas in Gaza had prevented the Turkish-mediated talks from moving to a direct phase. The negotiations were formally suspended during the campaign, which halted in January.

Meanwhile, Gul urged Israel on Friday to work toward resuming the peace talks, and said Ankara was ready to continue its role as a mediator between the two parties.

"Israel has to show clearly it is a partner," said Gul.

"We have heard Syria say it is ready to resume the peace talks from the point where they stopped with the previous [Israeli] government. We in Turkey are also ready," Gul added, speaking through a translator.