Syria sees no Israel peace before Bush quits as Turkey presses

In an interview published on the website of Le Figaro daily on Monday, Assad said he was betting that the next U.S. leader would get more involved in the peace process.       Â

Assad said Syria and Israel were looking for common ground to start face-to-face negotiations, adding that it was vital to find the right country to mediate such talks.   Â

"The most important thing in direct negotiations is who sponsors them," Assad told Le Figaro, saying that the United States had an essential role to play.

"Frankly, we do not think that the current American administration is capable of making peace. It doesn't have either the will or the vision and it only has a few months left," he was quoted by Reuters as telling the newspaper.

Israel and Syria last week agreed to continue indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey. The two countries also agreed to hold fifth and sixth rounds of talks in August, and they will decide at the July meeting whether the August talks will be indirect or direct, it added.

The parties are negotiating over the fate of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel occupied in a 1967 war and which Syrian wants it to return. Â

"When we have established a common foundation (for negotiations) at indirect talks with Israel, perhaps we could give some trump cards to the new administration to make it get more involved," he added.Â

"We are betting on the next president and his administration. We hope that it will be rather an advantage to have a change of president in the United States," he said.

The next U.S. president will take office next January.

TURKISH PRESSURE

The Israeli source said that Turkish officials have told their Syrian counterparts in recent days that the indirect talks mediated by Ankara have exhausted their usefulness, and it is now necessary to move to the next stage, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

Turkey is pressing Damascus fairly hard on this issue, it added.

"The Turks argue that the indirect talks have already fulfilled their function, which was to get the process started, replace the mutual suspicion with a degree of mutual trust, and determine whether there is a basis for moving forward. The answer to the latter question, in Ankara's view, is yes, and therefore it sees no point in continuing the indirect talks, which can take the process only so far," Haaretz reported.

The Israeli official added that Turkey and Israel had both wanted direct talks from the outset, but because Syria refused, they agreed to begin with indirect talks.

According to the Israeli official, Turkey has another motive for desiring to push the talks up a level: It is afraid that France may seek to "steal" its mediator's role, due to the recent rapprochement between Paris and Damascus, Haaretz reported.

"They have developed a real rivalry with France, and they want to advance the negotiations in order to bolster their status," the official added.

FRANCE'S ROLE

Assad, expected in Paris this weekend, has welcomed a "break" in France's policy toward his country and invited Paris to play a direct role in eventual negotiations between Damascus and Israel. Â

"We note a break between the current policy of France and the past policy.

"This new policy is more realistic and corresponds more with the interests of our two countries. It is a solid basis to renew healthy relations," Assad told Le Figaro.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Assad in Paris on July 12 after the French leader decided to restore high-level contacts with Damascus.

Former president Jacques Chirac cut off all official contacts after the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, who was a personal friend, in a February 2005 bombing in which Syria was widely implicated.

Sarkozy invited Assad along with some 40 foreign leaders for Sunday’s launch of a new Union for the Mediterranean, aimed at boosting cooperation between European Union and Mediterranean rim states. The Syrian leader will stay on for Frances Bastille Day ceremonies on July 14.

"This visit is for me a historic visit: an opening up to France and to Europe," Assad told the newspaper.