“The establishment of peace in the Middle East is impossible because of the absence of an Israeli partner,” Assad told reporters after talks with visiting Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Israel’s pursuit of settlement construction and its occupation of Arab territory conquered in 1967 were the “real obstacle” to peace and pushed the region toward “more wars and tension,” Assad said.
He said Syria “seriously wants to establish a just and comprehensive peace... through Turkish-sponsored indirect negotiations” with Israel but cannot engage in such talks because of the current climate.
Netanyahu’s government “cannot be considered a partner as long as it responds to calls for peace with settlements and the Judaization of (Muslim) holy sites” in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem, Assad said.
The Italian president, who began a three-day visit to Syria on Wednesday, said he was “extremely upset by the Israeli decisions to build settlements” and warned of their “disastrous consequence.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants launched their first deadly rocket attack on Israel in over a year, killing a Thai worker on Thursday in a strike that challenged Gaza’s Hamas rulers and prompted Israel to threaten a powerful response.
The rocket tore into a plastic-covered hothouse in the Israeli community of Netiv Ha’asara an hour after the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, paid a rare visit by a top diplomat to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.
She condemned the attack, as did UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, scheduled to visit the Gaza Strip, Israel and the West Bank on Saturday and Sunday. A previously unknown group, Ansar Al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for the strike.
“The Jihadist mission came in response to the Zionist assaults against the Ibrahimi and Al-Aqsa mosques and the continued Zionist aggression against our people in Jerusalem,” Ansar Al-Sunna said in a statement.
In a statement on the rocket firing, Hamas steered clear of comments that could be seen by Palestinians in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip as disapproving of a strike against its enemy, even an attack that strained an informal truce.
“The government of the Zionist enemy, which has launched a war against the Palestinian people and against holy sites and Al-Aqsa mosque, bears the responsibility for all the escalation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.
Separately on Thursday, the US Treasury imposed sanctions against two firms in Gaza - Islamic National Bank and Al-Aqsa Television - for their ties to Hamas. It said the bank provided services to members of Hamas’ military wing, and the television station aired programs “designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.”
In Moscow, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday Israeli and Palestinian leaders have no alternative to eventual direct negotiations, repeating criticism of plans for more Jewish homes near East Jerusalem. Ban said he hoped a meeting of the international “Quartet” of Middle East mediators in Moscow on Friday could advance troubled peace efforts at a crucially important time.
In another development, a senior Palestinian official told Reuters that US President Barack Obama’s Middle East peace envoy will return to the region on Sunday. George Mitchell’s visit had been expected to usher in indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks, but that has been thrown in doubt by Palestinian anger at plans for 1,600 more homes for Jewish settlers near East Jerusalem.
“The Americans have told us that he will come on Sunday,” said the Palestinian official, who refused to be named. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would meet Mitchell during his visit.
