"Israel and the United States do not want to make peace either with the Palestinians or with Syria. The American president himself said recently that he did not want peace with Syria,"
US does not want Syria involved in Mideast peace: VP Thu Jun 21, 12:56 PM ET
Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara charged on Thursday that the United States and Israel do not want Syria or the Palestinians involved in any Middle East peace settlement.
"Israel and the United States do not want to make peace either with the Palestinians or with Syria. The American president himself said recently that he did not want peace with Syria," he told foreign journalists.
But Shara said that inside Israel itself "there is a lot of talk of peace with Syria."
US-brokered peace talks between Syria and Israel were suspended in January 2000, with negotiations deadlocked over Damascus's demand for the full return of the Golan Heights, seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.
Shara denied secret negotiations had taken place between Israel and Syria. "This is false. We have no interest in secret contacts because such contacts aim to make concessions, and Syria is not ready for that," he said.
"Syria is looking at all the options, but its priority is peace."
On the Palestinian crisis, he repeated Syria's line that Damascus would not take sides between the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the Islamist militants of Hamas.
"Syria cannot support one side over the other," he said, after Hamas -- considered a terrorist organisation in the West -- ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip last week in battles which killed more than 110 people.
Abbas has won broad international support for a new emergency government he has set up without Hamas in the West Bank.
"Peace is impossible while there is a dangerous rupture on the Palestinian scene," Shara said, adding that Abbas and Israel could not reach any settlement as long as Hamas-ruled Gaza was isolated and "encircled."
Mass-selling Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot earlier this month said Olmert had secretly informed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he would be willing to withdraw from the occupied Golan Heights in exchange for peace.
Olmert has previously ruled out any talks as long as Damascus continues to support militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, whose exiled supreme political leader is based in the Syrian capital.
Olmert, on a White House visit Tuesday, played the possibility of an immediate resumption of peace talks between Israel and Syria.
At a news conference alongside US President George W. Bush, he said Assad had wanted to impose preconditions to talks, including making Bush a mediator.
For his part, Bush denied that he was pressuring his ally Olmert not to hold talks with Syria.
"If the prime minister wants to negotiate with Syria, he doesn't need me to mediate. It's up to the prime minister," Bush told reporters.
Source: AFP
Syria: US, Israel Against Peace
DAMASCUS, June 21--Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara charged on Thursday that US and the Zionist regime do not want Syria or the Palestinians involved in any Middle East peace settlement.
"Israel and the United States do not want to make peace either with the Palestinians or with Syria. The American president himself said recently that he did not want peace with Syria," he told foreign journalists.
US-brokered peace talks between Syria and the Zionist regime were suspended in January 2000, with negotiations deadlocked over Damascus's demand for the full return of the Golan Heights, seized by the occupation regime in the 1967 Middle East war.
Shara denied secret negotiations had taken place between the Zionist regime and Syria. "This is false. We have no interest in secret contacts because such contacts aim to make concessions, and Syria is not ready for that," he said.
"Syria is looking at all the options, but its priority is peace."
On the Palestinian crisis, he repeated Syria's line that Damascus would not take sides between the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas.
"Syria cannot support one side over the other," he said.
"Peace is impossible while there is a dangerous rupture on the Palestinian scene," Shara said, adding that Abbas and Israel could not reach any settlement as long as Hamas-ruled Gaza was isolated and "encircled."
Mass-selling Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot earlier this month said Olmert had secretly informed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he would be willing to withdraw from the occupied Golan Heights in exchange for peace.
Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara said US and the Zionist regime do not want Syria or the Palestinians involved in any Middle East peace settlement.
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