Syrian president says Israel is "major obstacle" to peace in Middle East

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

"The failure of the peace process is a blatant demonstration that Israel is the major obstacle to peace," Assad was quoted by AFP as saying in an address to a ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Damascus. 

"Our experience with Israel during indirect peace negotiations mediated by Turkey is further proof of this," he said.

Turkey brokered four rounds of indirect talks between the two countries last year, the first such contacts since previous peace negotiations were broken off in 2000 over the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

But Syria froze the contacts at the turn of the year when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip, controlled since June 2007 by the Islamist Hamas movement whose exiled leader Khaled Meshaal lives in Damascus.

Last week, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Ankara was ready to continue as a mediator.

"The failure of political methods to recover their legitimate rights gives them the right of resistance," Assad said, referring to Syrians and Palestinians whose land is occupied by Israel.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the strategic plateau in 1981, moves not recognized by the international community.

Assad said recently he did not think Israel’s hard-line government was a good peace partner.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would not return the occupied Golan Heights, but was open to restarting peace talks.