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Assad confirms Israeli peace offer

— Photo: AFP

: Hopes for common ground: Tourists at an old Israeli military post in the Golan Heights recently.

BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed on Thursday Turkey’s mediation between his country and Israel, but said there would be no direct negotiations until a new U.S. administration was sworn in.

Mr. Assad told Qatar’s Al-Watan newspaper that Turkey was mediating since April 2007. Syrian officials confirmed that Mr. Assad gave the interview and did not dispute its contents. Mr. Assad had said Damascus had yielded to an Israeli offer for a withdrawal from the Golan Heights in return for a peace treaty with Syria. The preliminary stages of talks would be held with Turkey as a go-between, he added.

The U.S. was the only party qualified to sponsor any direct Syrian-Israeli negotiations, said Mr. Assad. Israel, which captured the strategic heights in 1967, declined to comment on the offer.

Syria and Israel last held peace negotiations in 2000 — the talks collapsed over the extent of Israel’s proposed withdrawal. Mr. Assad told the newspaper he would discuss details of Turkey’s mediation with its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he visits Damascus on Saturday. Last week, Mr. Assad said Syria received the news that Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had assured Mr. Erdogan of his readiness to return the Golan Heights.

Both Mr. Assad and Mr. Olmert had in recent days said their countries had exchanged messages. Mr. Olmert said the messages clarified what each would expect from a future peace deal. It is not clear how much of the Golan Heights Israel is prepared to return or what its conditions arefor a withdrawal. Israel had demanded that Syria agree to a full peace deal and halt its support for groups such as the Hezbollah and Hamas.

Syria has had poor relations with the Bush administration as well as Washington’s regional allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt, particularly over Syria’s role in Lebanon’s political crisis.

— AP

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