Syria’s leader said he offered a proposal for peace with Israel but also refused to break off ties with Hezbollah and militant Palestinians — a key Israeli demand.
Syrian President Bashar Assad also said on Thursday that indirect negotiations with Israel were on hold until that country chooses a new prime minister and that direct talks would have to wait until a new US president takes office.
Assad’s comments came after meetings with France’s leader and regional mediators in talks focusing on Middle East peace and Iran’s nuclear program. France hopes that warmer relations with Syria, Iran’s ally, could help the West in its efforts to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear program.
Assad said his proposal for Israel was intended to serve as a basis for direct talks. He said he would wait for a similar document laying out Israel’s positions before any face-to-face talks. So far, negotiations between the two foes have been held indirectly through Turkish mediators.
Although Assad didn’t divulge details of his proposal, the move reflected a desire to break with Syria’s past policies. The quest was given a boost by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who visited Damascus on Wednesday and Thursday, becoming the first Western leader in several years to come to Syria.
Sarkozy has encouraged face-to-face Syria-Israel negotiations and offered to sponsor such talks in the future. He has been trying to forge better relations with both Syria and Libya.
Assad and Sarkozy were joined on Thursday in a four-way summit by Turkey’s prime minister and the leader of Qatar, a key broker in inter-Arab disputes, to discuss Mideast stability and peace.
Washington made clear it expects more from Syria before any warming of ties.
“Overall what we’d like to see out of Syria is for it to play a much more productive role in the region. It hasn’t until now. We’d like to see it not meddle in the affairs of the sovereign government of Lebanon,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.
He said the US “would like to see” Syria reach a peace with Israel and establish diplomatic relations.
In an interview with French TV, Assad ruled out any recognition of Israel before a peace deal.
But “when there is a peace accord, of course there will be reciprocal recognition. This is natural,” he said.
Syria and Israel have held four rounds of indirect talks through Turkish mediation in the last year.
Assad said at the summit that in the peace proposal, given to Turkish mediators, Syria outlined six points on the issue of the “withdrawal line” — a reference to the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
This has been a major sticking point in the previous talks, causing the collapse of US-brokered direct negotiations in 2000.
Syria has long demanded the complete return of the heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Israel has sought to keep a strip of land around the Sea of Galilee.
Assad said a fifth planned round of indirect talks with Israel had been postponed until after Israeli leadership elections and that the future of talks rested on whether the new prime minister will be committed to pursuing peace with Syria. Any direct talks would also have to wait until a new US administration is in place, Assad said, acknowledging the importance of strong US backing for such an effort.
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