- Title: SYRIA: Syria says Israel must return Golan Heights
- Date: 27th April 2009
- Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (APRIL 26, 2009) (REUTERS) SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER WALID AL-MOALLEM ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE WITH CHINESE COUNTERPART YANG JIECHI CAMERAMAN JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER WALID AL-MOALLEM, SAYING: "I do not want to comment on what Lieberman says. They (Israelis) know exactly what the demands of peace are. So, if they have a wil
- Embargoed: 12th May 2009 13:00
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- Story Text: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Sunday (April 26, 2009) Israel must return the Golan Heights if peace between the two sates is to be achieved.
His comments came after Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio the new government would talk peace with Syria if it dropped preconditions such as an Israeli commitment to return the Golan Heights.
Lieberman, an ultranationalist coalition partner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the less than month-old government was still formulating foreign policy but made clear he saw Syria's bedrock demand for the Golan as up for debate.
This is not the view from Damascus, which says Israel - which annexed the Golan in a move not recognised abroad - is legally required to return it along with other occupied Arab territory.
"I do not want to comment on what Lieberman says," the Syrian foreign minister said.
"They (Israelis) know exactly what the demands of peace are. So, if they have a will to make peace, this will should match with the agreements of the peace process which are: the Security Council resolutions, peace in exchange for territory, the Madrid agreement and the Arab peace initiative," al-Moallem added during a joint news conference with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.
Netanyahu vowed on the election trail not to give up the Golan, but since taking office has not publicly discussed the Syrian option.
As prime minister in 2000, the left-leaning Barak came close to a deal but it collapsed in disputes on demarcating the Golan.
Netanyahu's centrist predecessor, Ehud Olmert, held indirect talks with Syria through Turkish mediators. Syria froze those contacts in protest at Israel's January war in Gaza but has since signalled willingness to resume.
Olmert had his own precondition for fuller engagement with Syria -- that it distance itself from Iran, and Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas guerrillas. Iran rejected that.
Israel captured the strategic Golan Heights in a 1967 war. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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