Turkish president to visit Syria on Friday for Mideast talks: official

While details of Gul’s itinerary were not clear, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity, he is to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before returning home on Sunday.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the architect behind Turkey’s increasingly active Middle East policy, is expected to accompany the president.

The three-day visit comes amid gloom over the resumption of Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel that were suspended in December over the Jewish states military thrust into the Gaza Strip.

"Turkey is always ready to play its role as a facilitator between Syria and Israel, but that will happen only if the two parties are ready to talk," the spokesman said.

Syria says it is ready to resume the talks, but the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems split on whether it should pursue the negotiations launched under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Israel’s new ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has insisted that there is no sense in talking to Syria as long as it continues to support Hamas and Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Centre-left Defense Minister Ehud Barak, on the other hand, has argued for the launch of full-blown peace talks with Syria alongside the negotiations with the Palestinians.

According to a senior Israeli official, Netanyahu told his cabinet at the weekend that his government would not cede the strategic Golan Heights for the sake of peace with Syria.

The return of the strategic plateau seized by Israel in the 1967 war is a non-negotiable Syrian demand.

Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Syria last year, with the aim of direct peace negotiations between the two foes which were broken off in 2000 over the Golan Heights issue.