Report: Netanyahu agrees to withdraw from most parts of the Golan

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot stressed on Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared with the leader of the opposition of the Labor Party, Ehud Barak, a draft project for withdrawal from the major parts of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, but the project has not come out yet.

The paper talked about secret bargaining between the two men to form a national unity government, but such an initiative was ruled out because of the call to hold early elections in Israel. The Israeli paper asserted that within this context, "Netanyahu and Barak agreed on withdrawal from the main parts of the Golan," which was occupied by Israel in 1967 and which Syria is demanding to restore back fully as a precondition for peace.

The paper added that an official in the Israeli Cabinet confined to stressing that Netanyahu and Barak "spoke of withdrawal from the Golan but did not determine the extent of this withdrawal."

Israeli government officially opposes withdrawal from the Golan which Israel annexed in 1981. Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations have been suspended for three years.