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PM serious about negotiations with Syria
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Tuesday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's call earlier in the day for fresh peace talks was genuine and real, and that he indeed wants to resume talks.

"Bashar Assad apparently has other plans than making peace with Israel," Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security service, told Army Radio. "And now we will listen and wait."

Asked about an apparent softening in Olmert's position on Syria, Dichter said Israel had not formed a firm stance but would if the matter became more relevant.

Dichter was not, however, optimistic that Assad would agree to renew the talks, especially because he is allied with Iran.

In comments to Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, Olmert urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to begin direct peace negotiations between the two countries, and advised him not to wait for American mediation.

"Bashar al-Assad, you know that I am ready for direct talks with you," Olmert said.

"You [Assad] have been saying that you want the negotiations through the Americans. But they do not want to sit with you. I am ready to sit with you and talk about peace, not war."

Negotiations between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 without resolving the fate of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Israel annexed the Golan in 1981, but the move was unrecognized by the international community.

"I will be happy if I could make peace with Syria. I do not want to wage war against Syria," Olmert said.

Assad has repeatedly expressed interest in resuming talks with Israel through a third party. A Syrian Foreign Ministry official said last week that Damascus was ready for talks without preconditions and said Israel and Syria had solved some 85 percent of the problem in past negotiations.

Syria said last month, that if Israel made concessions in peace negotiations, it would cooperate directly with Washington in helping to curb violence in Iraq and change the nature of its relationship with its ally Iran, an enemy of Israel and the U.S.

The West accuses Syria of backing an insurgency in Iraq, and hosting leaders of Palestinian terror groups on its soil.

Analysts said Syria wants to regain the Golan now more than ever, after it was forced to withdraw its forces from Lebanon two years ago and U.S. led pressure on Damascus for its role in Iraq and Lebanon mounted.

PM serious about negotiations with Syria (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880335.html)