Israeli President wants peace with Syria

Israeli President Moshe Katsav urged his country today to take up a Syrian offer to renew peace talks and rejected assertions by officials that the offer is not significant.

“In my opinion it is important and worthwhile to thoroughly check out the intentions of Bashar Assad, if he really wants to make peace with us,” Katsav said.

“Since 1948, we have always declared our willingness to conduct peace talks with any Arab leader who wants to come and negotiate with us. I think this should be the case with the Syrian president.”

UN Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said yesterday that Syrian President Bashar Assad is ready to resume peace talks with Israel “without conditions,” but Israeli officials played down the statement, saying it was meaningless without Syria taking action against militant groups.

Katsav’s role in Israeli politics is purely ceremonial, but he enjoys widespread popular support for his centrist political positions.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said today that a positive Israeli response to the Syrian initiative depended on Assad’s willingness to move against militant organisations that Israel says receive assistance from it.

“If President Assad asks for the reopening of negotiations without conditions while at the same time acting to close down the terror organisations, to close the headquarters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, I will be the first to call for the immediate resumption of negotiations with the president of Syria,” he said.