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JERUSALEM : Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday the launch of indirect negotiations brokered by Turkey, eight years after the last attempt at peacemaking broke down over the fate of the occupied Golan Heights.
"Israel and Syria began indirect peace talks under Turkish auspices," the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.
Syria and Turkey confirmed the indirect peace negotiations had begun between the two nations, which have technically been in a state of war since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war when Israel captured the strategic Golan plateau from Syria.
"The two sides declared their intention to conduct these talks frankly and openly," Olmert's office said in a statement. "They decided to conduct the dialogue in a serious and continuous manner in a bid to reach a comprehensive peace."
Two top Olmert advisors, Shalom Turgeman and Yoram Turbowitz, were in Ankara holding talks with Turkish officials on the issue, senior Israeli officials said. Media reports said the two would return to Israel later on Wednesday.
The last round of peace talks between Syria and Israel broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan, which the Jewish state annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad revealed last month that Turkey had passed on a message from Israel expressing its readiness to swap the Golan Heights for peace, as Ankara renewed mediation efforts launched last year.
Damascus has consistently demanded the return of the whole of the Golan down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee - Israel's main water source - as its price for peace. But Israel baulked at the demand in the last peace talks.
The suggestion the area could be returned to Syria is highly controversial in Israel.
Housing Minister Zeev Boim of Olmert's Kadima party, said he opposes "in principle any withdrawal from the Golan Heights".
"Nevertheless we should hear exactly how and on what issues the negotiations are held," he added.
"A peace agreement can be reached with the Syrians only if they end all terror activities, including supporting and arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and giving up its strategic dependence on Iran," Boim said in a statement.
Israel considers Iran - a close ally of Syria - its greatest strategic threat because of Tehran's accelerating nuclear programme and remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicting the demise of the Jewish state.
An opinion poll last month showed more than two-thirds of Israelis oppose a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace.
The survey reported that 74 percent of Israelis "did not believe Assad was serious" about a peace deal.
Earlier this month, Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said that "preliminary work" already had been carried out towards resuming the peace talks with Syria.
"We don't just want to restart only a process of negotiations, we want to start a political dialogue," he said.
"The Syrians understand well what Israeli expectations are on such a process and we understand well what the Syrians' expectations are on such a process."
Wednesday's announcement came just two weeks after US President George W. Bush said he was extending US sanctions against Syria following Washington's charge that Damascus had been building a nuclear reactor with North Korea's help.
On May 8, Bush announced his decision to continue for one year a freeze on Syrian assets and the ban on the export of certain goods to Syria.
He accused Syria of "supporting terrorism... pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs including the recent revelation of illicit nuclear cooperation with North Korea".
Syria denies the US claims it has been building a secret nuclear reactor for military ends. - AFP/de
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