Brasilia - Israeli President Shimon Peres proposed Tuesday to resume talks with Syria that would be "direct" and unconditional as he addressed the two chambers of the Brazilian Congress. "From here, I call upon President Bashar Al Assad: let us launch direct and immediate negotiations, without intermediaries, without conditions, without delays," Peres said in the first-day of his five- day official visit to Brazil.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in late October said that Damascus was ready to resume talks, but qualified that he had "national support" in Syria for indirect talks.
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.
In Brasilia, Peres spoke of Israel's willingness to attain peace with Palestinians.
"Israel acknowledges Palestinians' right to have their own state. Let us pursue peace negotiations till we manage to complete them. Israel is ready to make difficult and painful concessions to make the Palestine state viable and so we can live like good neighbours," Peres said.
Peres' focus on peace, however, ended when he referred to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is also set to visit Brazil on November 23. Peres accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons and asked for Brazil's support to achieve peace in the Middle East.
"(The Iranian people were) never our enemy. The Islamic religion is not our enemy. But I cannot ignore this government that is developing nuclear weapons and calls for the destruction of Israel," Peres said.
In the face of that, he called for "a voice that is against destruction, a clear voice against terror."
Most of Peres' speech, however, focused on praising Brazil and the potential for increased cooperation between the two countries, particularly in science and technology.
He called Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - with whom he was set to meet Wednesday - "a great leader," and he made it clear that Brazil's cooperation would be welcome to seek peace in the Middle East.
