Assad redraws line in land for peace with Israel

VIENNA (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday there could be no progress toward peace with Israel unless the Jewish state recognized the right of Damascus to get back the Golan Heights.

Assad reasserted the bedrock Syrian condition for an end to decades of conflict a day after Israel's new ultranationalist foreign minister said it would talk peace with Syria only if it stopped demanding an Israeli commitment to return the Golan.

"What is important is that the Golan is our territory, it is our right. It must be returned to us without fail," Assad told a brief news conference after talks with his Austrian counterpart on a two-day visit to Vienna.

"The Israeli government is not ready to give back the Golan. But Syria enjoys worldwide support for its right to recover the Golan. That is not being ... taken seriously (by Israel)... We can talk about peace when this principle is recognized."

Syria says that Israel, which captured the strategic plateau in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a step not recognized internationally, is legally required under U.N. resolutions to return the Golan along with other occupied Arab territory.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday he would be happy to negotiate with Syria, "but without preconditions and without ultimatums."

Assad did not refer to Lieberman's remarks, or new rightist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow on the election trail not to relinquish the Golan, although since taking office he has not publicly discussed options on Syria.

"No government (except Israel) has declared loudly than it does not want peace." (Netanyahu's government) has also rejected the principle of a two-state solution (for Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territory)," Assad said.

"(But) we will strive with our European friends and the U.S. administration for a peace action plan," Assad said.

After eight years in which Washington under George W. Bush gave Middle East peace talks short shrift in favor of trying to isolate Israel's foes, President Barack Obama appears keen on engaging Syria and Iran, encouraging Syrian-Israeli peace talks and kickstarting moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

"We see a new optimistic mood in the world. It may not last long. We need to convert this optimism into action," Assad said.

Lieberman said Israel's less-than-month-old government was still drafting foreign policy positions but made clear he saw Syria's fundamental demand for the Golan as debatable.

Netanyahu's centrist predecessor, Ehud Olmert, held indirect talks with Syria through Turkish mediators. Syria froze those contacts in protest at Israel's January war in Gaza, but has since signaled willingness to resume.

(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)