Katsaf invites al-Assad for negotiations in secret or in open, without conditions

The Israeli President Moshe Katsaf has renewed his call for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to make direct negotiations with Israel in secret or in open, at any place without set preconditions.

In an exclusive statement to the Qatari al-Jazeera TV yesterday, the Israeli president said that his invitation to the Syrian president to visit Israel came on the background of the recent statements made in Syria and to test the real Syrian intention for peace with Israel.

Katsaf also asked the Syrian president to prove serious intentions that he wants peace. Katsaf added that the invitation also came to encourage the Syrian president to proceed into an open road, because he did not choose secret channels.

According to Katsaf, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, informed him that he is ready to join negotiations with Syria without prior conditions, and that he personally welcomes the Syrian president if he wants to come to Israel.

The Israeli president also called on Syria to stop its support for the Lebanese Hizbullah party, and not to host the Palestinians groups in Damascus. Katsaf accused President al-Assad of making anti-Semitism statements, and exploiting his relations with Iran to smuggle weapons to Hizbullah, and that raises Israeli doubts towards Syrian peace intention.

This, however, came after Channel II in the Israeli TV quoted the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, as saying that Israel will not give back the Golan heights to Syria even if it is for complete peace with it.

However, the Syrian ambassador at the UN, Faisal al-Miqdad, played down the Israeli invitation. He said that his country is not ready to sacrifice its land nor to negotiate with the Israeli president, noting that the problem is basically with the Israeli government.

He explained that this invitation will be of no result and there will be no peace as long as Israel does not honor UN security council resolutions provide for Israel's withdrawal from the Golan heights occupied in 1967.

Meantime, the US announced by the spokesman for the US Department Of State, Adam Early, that it welcomes direct negotiations between Israel and Syria, with the aim to reaching a comprehensive peace between the Arabs and Israel.

The US under secretary of state, William Burns, said in statements following his meeting with the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, that any opportunity to resume negotiations between Israel and Syria should be encouraged.

In Cairo, the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, played down the Israeli statements concerning the resumption of negotiations with Syria as they are not linked to the intention to withdraw from the Golan.