Syria suspends indirect talks with Israel
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has suspended indirect peace talks with Israel in response to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, a senior Syrian official said on Sunday.
Syria has held four indirect rounds of talks with Israel in Turkey this year although they had already been put on hold following the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in September.
"The Israeli aggression on Gaza closes the door in front of the movement for a peaceful political settlement," the Syrian official said. The official would not be drawn any further on which steps Syria was taking.
At least 296 Palestinians have been killed in two days of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Israel says they are a response to almost daily rocket and mortar attacks.
Indirect talks between Syria and Israel have focused on the Golan Heights. Israel captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it more than a decade later -- a move unanimously rejected as null by the U.N. Security Council.
The two countries held almost 10 years of direct talks under U.S. supervision that collapsed in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.
But the two countries resumed indirect talks this year following Turkish mediation. President Bashar al-Assad said last Monday that indirect talks could lead to direct talks and conclude with a peace deal.
