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Israel not interested in peace: Syria's Assad

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DAMASCUS | Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:44pm EST

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that peace talks with Israel had been stalled because Israel was not interested in achieving peace.

Israel's demand for negotiations without conditions meant that it wanted to bring down the peace process, Assad said after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Damascus.

"We discussed today the ways to bring the peace process out of the deadlock that it has reached ... because of the absence of a serious Israeli partner who aims to achieve peace," he told a joint news conference with Erdogan.

"When Israel says it wants negotiations without conditions it means it wants negotiations with no foundation. This is like having a building with no foundation, then it's very easy to be brought down and they want to bring down the peace process," he said.

Peace talks between Israel and Syria faltered in 2000 over Damascus's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed.

Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, last year facilitated contacts that focused on Syrian demands for a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and Israel's accusations that Damascus was arming militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Those contacts failed to produce formal negotiations, and Turkey's repeated offers to re-open the peace track have not resulted in further talks.

Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has ruled out resuming Turkish-mediated talks with Syria, insisting that any new contacts must be direct.

Relations between Turkey and Israel turned sour after Israel launched a three-week incursion into the Gaza Strip last December and Erdogan said Israel no longer trusted Turkey to mediate peace talks with Syria.

On Wednesday, Erdogan reiterated that Turkey remained committed to mediating peace talks.

"If the responsibilities fall on Turkey (to mediate between Syria and Israel), we are ready," Erdogan told the news conference, speaking through an Arabic interpreter.

(Writing by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, editing by Tim Pearce)
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Comments (12)
AlitoRAF wrote:
No, Israel is interested in peace. They live in an atmosphere of hatred and never know when the evil around them is going to unleash another attack. Israel wants a peace so that it’s children may sleep at night. They continue to try to reason with those who are without reason.

Dec 23, 2009 6:18pm EST  --  Report as abuse
AlitoRAF wrote:
Dec 23, 2009 6:20pm EST  --  Report as abuse
bbsnews wrote:
AlitoRAF,

Moshe Dayan admitted that Israel stole the Golan Heights because some kibbutzim farmers wanted it.

The Golan Heights is illegally occupied territory, and its “annexation” declared Illegal and null and void by the United Nations.

Israel would gain peace by simply following the rule of law, and returning the stolen territory.

At the same time, using that same rule of law formula, by Israel simply joining the family of nations and complying with numerous UN resolutions, would gain peace by ending its belligerent occupation of the West Bank, it’s illegal and null and void “annexation” of East Jerusalem, and the ongoing occupation and siege of Gaza that is collective punishment of an entire civilian population, and a crime against humanity.

That’s the only realistic way forward for Israel. Its terrorism and indeed world terrorism is directly driven by the 500,000 illegal colonists living outside of Israel on stolen land.

When Israel retreats to within its own boundaries, and ends its occupations and endless incursions and ratcheting up of tensions, then Israel can be at peace because right now, Israel and its actions are causing Israel its own ills.

There is no greater threat to Israel other than its own actions.

Dec 23, 2009 7:44pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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