Jerusalem - Israel is trying to resume peace negotiations
with Syria, to revive peace talks broken off in early 2000, an
Israeli cabinet minister said Friday.
'Israel is making every effort to return Syria to the discussion
table,' National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told
Israel Radio.
Speaking a day before the start of an Arab League summit in
Damascus, Ben-Eliezer said the efforts were 'permanent' and were
being made through 'mutual friends.'
He did not say what has become of the Israeli attempts, but noted
that the government was aware that the price Israel would pay for a
peace treaty with Syria was the return of the Golan Heights, captured
in the 1967 war.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted Wednesday that Israel wanted to
hold direct talks with Syria, possibly in secret.
The last round of Israeli-Syrian peace talks were held in January
2000, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and came to naught when the
sides were unable to agree on the depth of the Israeli withdrawal
from the Golan.
Syria insists that Israel withdraw entirely from the Heights, a
strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, and pull back as well
to the north-eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which prior to the
1967 war was Syrian territory.
Israel refused in the 2000 talks to allow Syrians access to the
Sea of Galilee, and demands that under any peace agreement Damascus
end its support for Palestinian militant groups and stop providing
arms to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and bringing about the
destabilizing of Lebanon.
According to the Israeli foreign ministry, Jerusalem also insists
Syria end its support of terrorism in Iraq, 'and relinquish the
strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran.'
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