Sarkozy meets Syria's Assad on Middle East peace

PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy tried to breathe life into the Middle East peace process Friday, hosting his Syrian counterpart just two days after talks with the Israeli prime minister.

President Bashar al-Assad arrived at the Elysee Palace in Paris boasting of a new "climate of trust" in relations with France, but without having directly responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer of new talks.

Relations between France and Syria have been warming since Assad paid a landmark visit to Paris last year for Bastille Day celebrations and Sarkozy visited Damascus two months later in September 2008.

Sarkozy hopes to use France's ties with Damascus as a lever to persuade Assad to renew dialogue with his arch foe Israel and to solicit his help in persuading the Palestinian leadership to return to talks.

Following Netanyahu's visit to Paris on Wednesday, a senior Israeli official said: "Mr Sarkozy raised the issue of the Syrian track.

"The prime minister said he is willing to meet with the Syrian president at any time and anywhere to move on the peace negotiations on the basis of no pre-conditions," he promised.

Hostility between Israel and Syria is one of the problems underlying all efforts to seek a broader Middle East peace settlement.

Syria has repeatedly demanded the return of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israeli captured in the 1967 war and unilaterally annexed in 1981, as a non-negotiable condition for peace.

Israel accuses Syria of backing anti-Israeli militant groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas. Both have offices in Damascus.

Assad told a meeting of Arab politicians this week Syria would not "put forward conditions on making peace" but warned it had "rights that we will not renounce," according to the SANA news agency.

Turkish mediation between the foes broke off last year during Israel's offensive in Gaza, closing a promising diplomatic channel, but Ankara says it is willing to resume its role.

The editor of Syria's ruling party newspaper Al Baath, Abdel-Latif Omran, told AFP that while Syria was sticking to its demands for the return of the Golan Heights, it was ready to negotiate on parallel issues.

"The Israeli side is trying to sabotage all international peace efforts," Omran alleged.

"We hope that the efforts put forward by the European Union and France will lead to true peace in the Middle East, but there is no Israeli willingness to make peace."

Keeping the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians, Sarkozy is dispatching Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to the region for talks next week.

Sarkozy outlined "important suggestions" aimed at restarting the comatose peace process between these two parties during telephone talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday, according to a Palestinian aide.

A senior Palestinian official told AFP that the "suggestions" included holding a Middle East peace conference in Moscow, an idea Russia has been pushing for months.