Middle East News
Recent Syrian peace overtures 'sincere': Israeli intelligence head
Dec 25, 2006, 13:13 GMT
Jerusalem - Recent overtures by Syrian President Bashar Assad hinting at possible peace negotiations with Israel were sincere, a senior Israeli army officer said Monday.
Brigadier Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence's Research Division, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that Assad was offering to talk peace with Israel out of his own interests, in order to improve his international standing.
His assessment contradicts that of the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, who said last week that Damascus was 'more prepared than ever' to go to war with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, citing opposition by US President George Bush, has ruled out talks with Syria at present.
Previous Israeli-Syrian negotiations, the last of which floundered in March 2000, centred around the return to Syria of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, which the Israelis captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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