Israeli PM says Syria peace talks to remain secret

"We have no intention to conduct these negotiations through the media or through daily statements or by inventing slogans," Olmert said before the weekly cabinet meeting.Â

"We are entering negotiations with seriousness. There has been and there will be very detailed and meticulous preparation that will match our expectations from the negotiations to the reality as it is today and not as it were 10 or two years ago."

 

Both Israel and Syria confirmed on Wednesday that they have launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as a mediator, after an eight-year freeze.

 

Olmert said the process of establishing the indirect talks with Syria began in February 2007.

 

The Syrians want the return of all of the Golan Heights which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981, a move never recognised by the international community.

 

Former Israeli army Chief Dan Halutz said on Sunday that Israel can manage without the strategic plateau bordering the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main source of fresh water.

 

"We can manage without (the Golan) as we did in the past," Halutz said on military radio. "In exchange for a real peace we must be ready to pay a real price -- if not its all a waste to time. Â

 

"When we launch discussions with Syria, everyone knows what is on the table and we must explore all possibilities to make peace with our enemies," he said.

 

Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Sunday Syria is Iran's strategic ally after Israel demanded that Damascus break off its ties with Iran and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Shiite Hezbollah, which Israel considers to be terrorist organizations. Â

Syria has said it would reject any preconditions in the talks that call on Damascus to change its relations with other countries or groups.

"Iranian-Syrian ties are strategic and based on bilateral national interests and those of the Islamic world," Mohammad Najjar was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

"Creating collective security is the only way to prevent and confront regional crises," Mohammad Najjar said during talks with visiting Syrian Defence Minister Hassan Turkmani.

Turkmani's visit is the first by a Syrian official since Syria and Israel announced on Wednesday that they had resumed indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators after an eight-year freeze. 

Iran does not recognise Israel and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drawn international condemnation by calling for the Jewish state to be wiped from the map.

The three-decades-old alliance between Syria and Iran was bolstered in 2006 when they signed a military cooperation agreement

Polls show that public opinion in Israel opposes withdrawing from the Golan plateau, now home to some 20,000 Jewish settlers and military installations.

Halutz quit as army chief in January 2007 following criticism of his leadership during the 34-day Lebanon war against the Iran- and Syria-backed Hezbollah movement in the summer of 2006. Â

 

 

LEASING PROPOSAL

 

A senior Israeli minister on Sunday proposed leasing the occupied Golan Heights for 25 years under a future peace agreement with Syria.

"Looking forward, I am ready to recognise Syria's sovereignty over the Golan Heights in a peace agreement," Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit told the AFP before the weekly cabinet meeting.

"I propose leasing the Golan from the Syrians for 25 years. If they are serious about peace they have nothing to lose," said Sheetrit, a senior member of Olmert's centrist Kadima party.

Sheetrit said the 25-year lease would be used for the gradual removal of all the settlers living there. Today the strategic plateau, overlooking most of northern Israel, is home to nearly 20,000 Jewish settlers.  

Photo: Reuters