JERUSALEM: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AGREES TO ENTER PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SYRIA WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS

Record ID: 399831

  • Title: JERUSALEM: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AGREES TO ENTER PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SYRIA WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS
  • Date: 8th September 1996
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 8, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU WITH ISRAELI NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE/ JOURNALISTS (2 SHOTS) 0.25 2. SV NETANYAHU SPEAKING ABOUT TALKS WITH UNITED STATES PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON (ENGLISH) 1.10 3. SCU SHARON 1.13 4. SV SHARON AN
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA81ORXWNYF8S7WZSTVAVHBB1RS
  • Story Text: INTRO: Israel has said it is ready to hold talks with Syria without preconditions on the Middle East peace process.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (September 8) that peace negotiations between Israel and Syria can be resumed immediatly with no preconditions.

    The apparent U-turn in Israeli policy comes just before Netanyahu is due to visit the United States.

    "We are interested in peace and there is no reason why we wouldn't resume talks," Netanyahu told reporters at a special ceremony for the building of a trans-Israel highway.

    "We are not demanding that (Syrian President Hafez al-Assad) accepts our ideas in advance of the negotiations," Netanyahu said, "we should come ... without preconditions and negotiate on a whole gambit of issues that interest us both." Peace negotiations between Israel and Syria came to an halt after the May election of Netanyahu. During his election campaigning the right-winger pledged never to return the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and a key stumbling block to negotiations.


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