Israel has reportedly agreed to withdraw from the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal with Syria.
Shams-Press, a semi-official Syrian news Web site, reported April 23 that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed in principle to a Turkish plan for renewed peace talks between Jerusalem and Syria.
The negotiations, according to Shams-Press, would be predicated on Israel’s willingness to return the Golan to Syria.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the report, only saying that “we know what the Syrians want of us, and they know what we want of them.”
News of the report caused uproar in the right-wing opposition and among some members of the Israeli coalition government.
Olmert has voiced willingness to restart talks with Syria that stalled in 2000, but on the condition that Damascus first disengage from Palestinian terrorist groups, Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has demanded a full return of the Golan, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. — jta/ynetnews.com
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California