UN envoy: Syria ready to resume peace talks with Israel ''without conditions''

Syrian President Bashar al-Asad is ready to reopen negotiations with Israel without conditions, according to the visiting UN Middle East envoy. But Israeli has rejected the overture as propaganda.

"President Asad had reiterated to me today that he has an outstretched hand to his Israeli counterpart, that he is willing to go to the table without conditions," Terje Roed-Larsen said after talks with the Syrian leader in Damascus on Wednesday.

"This is very encouraging because we in the UN do not believe that there will be a lasting peace unless there is a comprehensive peace. We have to address all the tracks in the Middle East peace process," he said.

Offer dismissed

But Israel rapidly dismissed the reported offer as a propaganda move designed to alleviate pressure from the United States.

"This seems to be a propaganda manoeuvre by the Syrian side," a senior foreign ministry official on Wednesday said on condition of anonymity.

"The Syrians are reacting because they have their backs to the wall after the (US) sanctions and the UN vote on Lebanon."

"Only if a proposition reaches us through the correct American channels then we will be ready for discussions," added the official, echoing equally cool responses to a number of similar overtures by Damascus in recent months.

Peace talks between Syria and Israel broke down in January 2000 over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights, which the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 war and later annexed.

Roed-Larsen met both Al-Asad and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara in Damascus for talks on the status of the peace process in the Middle East.

Opportunities

"We have been emphasising the necessity of having a comprehensive perspective on the peace process," Roed-Larsen said.

There were also "potential opportunities" on the Israeli-Palestinian track with a January election to find a successor for late Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year, he said.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav had invited Al-Asad to visit Jerusalem for talks in January if Syria stopped backing Palestinian resistance groups and the Lebanese Hizb Allah movement. Syria said it could not take such an offer seriously.

On Thursday, Roed-Larsen is due in Lebanon which, like Syria, remains technically at war with Israel.

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Israeli President Moshe Katsav has urged the government to respond positively to a Syrian offer to resume peace negotiations.

Although Katsav's role is largely ceremonial, his comments on Thursday were in stark contrast to the reaction of Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom who said he would not contemplate the resumption of negotiations.

In an interview with the Maariv newspaper, Katsav expressed scepticism about Syria's intentions but said Israel should not automatically snub peace overtures.

"In my opinion it is important to carefully examine Asad's intentions, whether he really wants peace or only wishes to improve his international image," he said.

Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy for the Middle East, said on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Asad was ready to reopen negotiations with Israel "without conditions".

"President Asad had reiterated to me today that he has an outstretched hand to his Israeli counterpart, that he is willing to go to the table without conditions," Roed-Larsen said after talks with the Syrian leader.

Unimpressed

Shalom, however, poured cold water on the idea of resuming talks after a near five-year impasse by repeating accusations that Syria is harbouring leaders of Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas.

"We can't talk about peace and allow terrorism to be conducted on their territory," Shalom told public radio.

Peace talks over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights between Syria and Israel broke down in January 2000 shortly before Ariel Sharon became Israeli prime minister.

The Golan Heights were seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 war and later annexed.

Observers believe that Sharon will not allow himself to get bogged down in peace negotiations with Syria or consider a withdrawal from parts of the Golan Heights while trying to carry out his planned pullout from the occupied Gaza Strip.

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