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Sharon Ready for Peace Talks With Syria
Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon has expressed the willingness to restart peace negotiations with Syria suspended in January last year, Israel Radio reported Saturday.
During a meeting with Miguel Moratinos, the European Union's Middle East envoy, Sharon said that he was ready to resume peace talks with Syria with no preconditions and asked Moratinos to convey a verbal message to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Moratinos, who is on a tour to the Middle East, said that he intended to visit Damascus by the end of February.
Sharon's spokesman, Ra'anan Gissin, confirmed the report that Sharon wanted to begin negotiations with Syria, but stressed that it would be difficult, in light of the attacks against Israeli targets by the Islamic radical group of Hezbollah, or Party of God.
Gissin added that according to Sharon, Iranian- and Syrian- backed Hezbollah has had more freedom to operate under Bashar's government than under his late father, Hafez Al-Assad who died last June.
An Israeli soldier was killed and three others were slightly wounded Friday when Hezbollah gunmen fired an anti-tank missile against Israeli forces in the disputed area of Shebaa Farms at the foothills of the Golan Heights.
In response, the Israeli Defense Forces launched an artillery bombardment of areas in south Lebanon, from where Israel withdrew its troops last May after a 22-year occupation.
The Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations were resumed in December 1999 after a nearly four-year break but were stalled again when Israel refused to promise a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
Syria has stressed that any resumption of peace negotiations will be based on Israel's commitment to a complete withdrawal from the Golan.
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