Damascus, Jan 15: Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otri said today he saw no hope of making peace with the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "There is no hope of making a just and durable peace in the region with the current government of the zionist entity," Otiri said in remarks to the press after a meeting with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. He characterized as "propaganda" an invitation Monday from Israeli president Moshe Katsav to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to come to Jerusalem for peace talks. Katsav had said on Israeli public radio: "I invite President Assad to come to Jerusalem to seriously negotiate with Israeli leaders on the conditions of a peace accord. Mr. Assad will be welcome, but there should be no preconditions."
In damascus, a senior syrian official said that offer was nothing more than a publicity stunt and a diversion from the land-for-peace principles of the negotiations, which were broken off in January 2000.
A syrian diplomat stressed that damascus` objective remains the recovery of the golan heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 middle east war, and that it would not return to the negotiating table "just at any price."
Katsav yesterday repeated the offer in remarks to the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera, proposing peace negotiations in "secret or public, anywhere and without pre-conditions."
Bureau Report