US reluctant to join Israel-Syria talks

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:23:53 GMT
The United States says it is not sending an envoy to take part in the next round of indirect Israeli-Syrian peace talks in Turkey.  "There are no plans to send a US envoy to the talks," the Jerusalem Post quoted a US embassy official in Israel as saying.  This is while Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment on whether Israel was aware of US plans to send an envoy to the fifth round of peace talks. At a press briefing in Washington, US State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood also said that he had no information over rumors that Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch is to attend the talks.  "I haven't heard anything about that at all," he said.
Israel and Syria announced in mid-May that they had started peace negotiations under the auspices of Turkey. Four rounds of indirect talks have taken place So far.  Tel Aviv has called on Damascus to enter direct talks over the Syrian Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967, but Syria has so far rejected.  Syria seeks the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the plateau without any preconditions, vowing not to take even one step forward in negotiations before it receives guarantees that the Zionist regime will fully withdraw its forces from the Golan Heights.  MMA/MMN, Source at PressTV