DOHA (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad confirmed in remarks published on Thursday that Turkey has relayed a message from Israel expressing a readiness to swap the Golan Heights for peace.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "informed me of Israel's readiness to withdraw from the Golan in return for peace with Syria," Assad was quoted by the Qatari daily Al-Watan as saying.
In excerpts from an interview to be published in full on Sunday, the paper quoted Assad as saying that Ankara has been mediating between Israel and Syria since April last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assured Erdogan of his readiness to return the Golan, and this was relayed to Syria a week ago, Assad said, confirming reports of Turkish mediation that emerged on Wednesday.
"What we now need is to find common ground through the Turkish mediator," he said, adding that any negotiations with Israel would be conducted via Ankara.
Olmert's spokesman, while withholding direct comment on Assad's remarks, said Israel wanted peace talks with Syria.
"We have no specific comment on President Assad's statements," Mark Regev told AFP in Jerusalem.
But "Israel wants peace and wants to engage in peace negotiations with Syria. We know what Syria would expect from such negotiations and Syria knows what we would expect."
Israeli Tourism Minister Yitzhak Herzog, a member of the inner security cabinet, said that Israel was in no hurry to give up the Golan, however.
"The Golan is precious to us all and no one is in a hurry to relinquish it... We're not there yet anyway... but the fact that both sides are talking peace is in itself positive," he told Israeli public radio.
Assad said the first thing that needs to be discussed is "recovery of the land in order to (ascertain) Israeli credibility, because we have to be cautious and precise in discussing this issue."
Assad said Israel was proposing direct talks, but that these need common ground and "a sponsor, which can only be the United States, unfortunately."
He said the administration of US President George W. Bush "has neither a vision, nor the will to (push forward) the peace process" but that direct negotiations might become possible under his successor.
Assad said he will discuss the issue with Erdogan when the Turkish prime minister visits Damascus on Saturday.
Assad's remarks came a day after reports in Syria that Erdogan has assured Damascus that Israel is ready to return all of the Golan Heights in return for peace.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.
An Erdogan spokesman declined to comment on the reported peace feelers.
"We are going to Syria on Saturday. The prime minister will make the necessary statements before and after the visit. We deem it inappropriate to comment on the issue at the moment," Mehmet Akif Beki told AFP in Ankara.
As its price for peace, Syria has consistently demanded the return of the whole of the Golan right down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee -- Israel's main water source.
Israel balked at the demand in the most recent peace talks, which broke off in 2000. But Israeli media reported last year that the government was considering accepting it in return for Syrian agreement to end its longstanding alliance with Iran and its support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups.
Last June two Israeli ministers confirmed that peace feelers had been made to Syria through third party governments, one of which was widely identified as Turkey.
Olmert told Israel's Channel 10 television last week: "Very clearly we want peace with the Syrians and we are taking all manner of actions to this end.
"President Bashar al-Assad knows precisely what our expectations are and we know his. I won't say more."
Despite a 1974 armistice, the two sides remain technically in a state of war. As recently as last September Israel launched an air strike against a site in northeastern Syria.
Damascus reacted furiously to the raid, roundly rejecting Israeli charges that the site was military.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
