Syria ready to talk to Israel

2009-10-28 20:06

Zagreb - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said here on Wednesday his country was ready to resume suspended talks with Israel and called on European nations to help in the process.

"As far as it concerns us in Syria we have national support to continue talks with Israel," Assad said.

"However, there is a condition that on the Israeli side we also have those who want to continue the negotiations," he added after meeting his Croatian counterpart Stipe Mesic.

The Syrian head of state praised Turkey's efforts in the process and stressed that the presence of a "third side" would be necessary if the talks resume.

"We call on European countries to also give their contribution, to help Turkey but also us to be able to resume from where we have stopped," he stressed.

Turkey last year brokered four rounds of indirect talks between longtime foes Israel and Syria, focusing on the contentious issue of the return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau seized by Israeli forces during the 1967 war.

But talks were suspended when the Jewish state launched an offensive against the Palestinian Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip in late December.

"The suspended talks should resume and Golan (Heights) be brought back under Syrian sovereignty," said Mesic.

"Security for Israel should be also guaranteed."

Some 95 Croatian soldiers serve as members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights.

The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for the Golan Heights was established in May 1974 to supervise the disengagement of Syrian and Israeli forces following the 1973 war.

- AFP