Israel denies receiving peace message from Syria via Turkey: paper

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 19, 2004

Israel denies receiving peace message from Syria via Turkey: paper

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A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office has denied reports that Israel had received Syria's message of offering to renew talks via Turkey, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported Thursday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was quoted by the London-based Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper on Wednesday as saying that he had delivered Syria's letters and documents to Israel and the United States during his recent visit to Washington.

Israel Radio reported Thursday that US President George W. Bush considered a peace overture which Syria said had been made to Israel as very interesting, saying that it represented an encouraging sign.

But he wanted to get a clearer idea of Syrian President Bashar Assad's intentions, Bush was quoted as saying in an interview with the station.

Assad told The New York Times last November that he wanted to renew peace talks with Israel and he had repeated the offer severaltimes.

Syria wants talks to resume from where they broke off in 2000, when the previous Israeli government accepted a withdrawal from almost all the Golan Heights seized by Israel in 1967. But Sharon insists that the negotiations should begin from scratch.

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