Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday that Damascus is ready to
resume unconditional peace talks with Israel, at a press conference with his
Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller.
“We engaged in negotiations with Israel for 10 years,” Muallem said. “Syria is
ready to resume these in accordance with what has been achieved” during previous
Syrian-Israeli talks, which have been stalled since January 2000.
“We are in favour of achieving a peace which is fair and in accordance with
United Nations resolutions,” he added.
US-brokered peace talks broke down in 2000 over disagreements on the Golan
Heights, the strategic plateau that Israel seized during the 1967 Six Day War
and unilaterally annexed in 1981.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert played down during a White House
visit the possibility of an immediate resumption of peace talks with Syria.
Olmert, at a news conference with US President George W. Bush, said Syrian
President Bashar Al Assad wanted to impose preconditions to talks, including
making Bush a mediator.
“The Syrian leader said that he is against any preconditions from the Israeli
side,” Olmert said. “But he is certainly for preconditions from the Syrian
side.” Muallem on Tuesday denied Syria was trying to dictate terms for a
resumption of talks.
“Syria is not imposing any conditions for making peace with Israel,” he said.
“There is a difference between conditions and requirements for peace. These are
stipulated by the UN Security Council resolutions” which call for the withdrawal
of Israel from the occupied Arab territories, said the minister.
Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported on June 8 that Olmert had secretly
sent messages to Assad offering a full withdrawal from the Golan in exchange for
Syria abandoning its quarter-century alliance with Israeli arch foe Iran and
expelling Lebanese and Palestinian fighters.
Two Israeli Cabinet ministers confirmed 10 days ago that the government has
approached Syria indirectly about the possibility of renewing peace talks.
Muallem declined to comment on Washington’s latest measures against the Damascus
regime after the White House barred a number of Syrians and Lebanese accused of
destabilising Lebanon from entering the United States
(AFP)
