PARIS (AFP) — Serious peace negotiations between Syria and Israel will not take place until a new US administration is in place after the November election, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday.
"The current administration (of President George W. Bush) is not interested in the peace process," he told reporters at his Paris meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
While Washington and Paris could contribute to Israeli-Syrian peace talks, direct political negotiations would not happen until a new US administration is in place, he added.
The winner of November's presidential election, in which the main contenders are expected to be Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, will be inaugurated as US president at the end of January 2009.
Only when negotiations were out of the current technical stage could "political meetings" take place, said Assad.
According to a joint statement issued by Assad and Sarkozy, the Syrian president "hopes France, with the United States, can bring strong support to a peace accord between Israel and Syria" and help with "security arrangements."
Sarkozy responded: "France is available to answer all requests to this effect, if all the parties find it useful."
Following an eight-year freeze, Syria and Israel began indirect talks in May, brokered by Turkey.
But the Syrian leader said he would not meet in Paris with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday. Both leaders are attending the summit to launch the Union for the Mediterranean.
Although Israel and Syria have have formally been at war since 1948 they have signed armistice accords and ceasefires.
In exchange for peace, Syria is demanding Israel return the strategically important Golan Heights.
Syria and Lebanon on Saturday announced they had agreed to establish diplomatic relations, opening embassies in either country's capital for the first time since their independence from colonial rule.
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