BEIRUT, Lebanon, 29 January 2004 — Four years after their negotiations collapsed, Israel and Syria are once again talking about peace. They’re just not talking to each other.

In recent weeks, Israeli and Syrian leaders have made repeated public statements and sent messages through intermediaries that they want to resume peace talks. But there is a wide gulf between the countries, which are still technically at war and have no direct channels of contact. Syria insists that negotiations must resume where they left off in 2000, when the previous Israeli government accepted a withdrawal from almost all of the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel wants negotiations to start from scratch.

Through Turkish and Egyptian channels, Syrian President Bashar Assad has let it be known that he is willing to reach an agreement along the lines set by his father, Hafez: A “full peace’’ in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which now has about 17,000 Jewish settlers.

Israeli officials have dismissed Assad’s overtures as insincere, saying Damascus is trying only to ease pressure from the United States. The Bush administration has threatened to impose sanctions on Syria for its support of Palestinian militant groups, its dominance of its smaller neighbor, Lebanon, and its alleged development of chemical weapons.

Some Israeli leaders see an opening in Assad’s gambit. On Jan. 12, President Moshe Katsav invited Assad to visit Jerusalem, without conditions. Syria quickly rejected the offer, calling it a publicity stunt.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his allies say they’re not willing to help Assad evade American pressure. Early this month, Sharon said Israel would agree to resume negotiations only after Syria dropped all support for Palestinian militants and abandoned any conditions of its own. In effect, Sharon set a precondition that would require talks to start from scratch, making it almost impossible for Assad to agree.

“The Syrians appear sincere about resuming negotiations. They’re under intense American pressure,’’ said Adib Farha, a Lebanese political analyst. “But Assad can’t deliver less than his father (demanded) on the Golan. He cannot risk appearing weak.’’

Israeli-Syrian talks reportedly broke down in March 2000 over a small strip of land at the edge of the Sea of Galilee. Three months later, Hafez Assad died after ruling Syria for 30 years. Since then, the younger Assad has been working to consolidate his grip on power and maintain the support of hard-liners from his father’s regime.

If Assad were to accept Sharon’s offer of starting talks from scratch, he could lose the backing of the “old guard,’’ which controls Syria’s army and intelligence services. For Sharon, to resume where negotiations broke off would mean that Israel has to concede almost all the Golan Heights — and Sharon would risk alienating some of his hard-line supporters.

Still, Assad’s offer is igniting debate in Israel. Several key officials, including Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, argue that Israel should resume negotiations because Syria is militarily and diplomatically weaker than it was four years ago.

These officials say that Syria might make more concessions today because it is worried about the presence of 130,000 US troops in neighboring Iraq, and possibly becoming Washington’s next target for “regime change.’’

Last week, Sharon told a parliamentary committee that a peace deal with Syria would require Israel to withdraw from all of the Golan Heights.

But aides made clear that Sharon does not necessarily endorse that idea. “The prime minister said this as a statement of fact, not as his position in any negotiations,’’ said Raanan Gissin, a senior Sharon adviser.

A complicating factor in the Israeli-Syrian relationship is Damascus’ support for the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which effectively controls Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. Last week, Hezbollah fighters fired a rocket at an Israeli military bulldozer that had crossed several yards into Lebanon, killing an Israeli soldier and injuring another.

Israel promptly retaliated last Tuesday with air raids on two Hezbollah training bases in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials portrayed the air strikes as a message to Syria.