The official news agency quoted Assad as saying that Syria
was hoping to see progress on an accord with Israel but that "Israeli
policies make that hard to imagine.”
He was speaking to Claude Cousseran, a French presidential
envoy entrusted with trying to relaunch negotiations between the two sides.
Assad's told Cousseran that Turkey, Syria's northern neighbor
with whom it has been strengthening ties, must play a role if peace talks
between Syria and Israel were to resume.
Assad said any new talks must build on four rounds of
indirect talks that were mediated by Turkey, breaking down during the Israeli
offensive on Gaza in 2008.
In May, relations between Israel and Turkey worsened when
Israeli soldiers killed nine Turks aboard an aid ship trying to break the
Israeli blockade of Gaza.
"President Assad affirmed that Syria seeks a just and
comprehensive peace and the importance of coordinating with Turkey in this
regard," the agency said.
Syria regards France as a counterweight to the United States,
a close Israeli ally that is also seeking to relaunch talks between Syria and
Israel and is supervising renewed direct talks between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority.
The Syrian government did not criticize the
Palestinian-Israeli talks but said all Palestinian factions must be
represented. It has also allowed exiled Hamas leaders to voice vehement
opposition to the negotiations from Damascus.
Syria says an Israeli commitment to withdraw from the whole
of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967, was needed before
talks with Israel could resume.
Israel said could resume the talks without conditions,
although Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria in April of supplying
Scud missiles to Hezbollah, which is also supported by Iran.
