Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak Thursday welcomed a statement by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that Damascus was ready to resume suspended talks with Israel. Barak said although Syria continued its support for radical Islamist movements in the region, he believed Assad's call for resuming peace talks was genuine.
"Syria is a cornerstone within any possible stable regional peace agreement," the minister told Israel Radio, adding a peace treaty was both an Israeli and a Syrian interest.
"The fact that the Syrian president stands up today and says that 'I'm willing to negotiate with Israel and that 'my nation is ripe for peace' - that is an important statement that must not be left hanging in the air," argued Barak, a Labour party member of the ruling government coalition.
However, Regional Cooperation Minister Silvan Shalom, of the hardline Likud party, was more sceptical, saying he believed Assad was declaring his willingness to resume peace talks with Israel merely to gain international recognition.
Syria was declaring it wanted peace with Israel, while at the same time continuing its support for radical armed groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, Shalom charged.
Assad was quoted as telling reporters in Zagreb Wednesday that he enjoyed "national support" in Syria for continuing indirect talks with Israel.
He praised Turkey's mediation efforts in past talks and urged European countries to contribute. The talks should resume from where they stopped with the previous Israeli government, he said.
Ankara last year brokered four rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Syria. The talks were suspended last winter when Israel headed into new elections and launched a deadly and destructive offensive in Gaza against rocket attacks. Damascus demands a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
