1 May 2009

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi wrapped up a regional Middle East visit in Damascus on Sunday saying Israel should return the Golan Heights to Syria.
 
"China supports Syria's efforts to recover the Golan," which Israel seized during the 1967 war and annexed in 1981, Yang told reporters during a joint news conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem.
 
Yang has visited Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories during his regional tour and has urged the Jewish state to resume “peace negotiations” with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.
 
He reiterated his call in Syria, where he also met President Bashar al-Assad.
 
China will pursue its efforts for “a just and comprehensive peace based on United Nations resolutions, the principle of land-for-peace and the roadmap sponsored by the Middle East peace Quartet,” Yang said.

Syria's Assad "Not Optimistic" about Talks with Israel

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted on the return of the Golan Heights but said he could not foresee “peace talks” with Israel anytime soon, in an interview with an Austrian daily published Sunday.
  
"What counts in the end, is that there is occupied territory that must be returned to Syria, and then we can talk about peace," Assad told the newspaper Die Presse, ahead of a visit to Austria Sunday.
  
"We do not make a peaceful solution dependent on the Israeli government. Governments in Israel come and go, whereas peace is a fixed goal that one must work towards consistently, even when there is no partner," he said. But he added: "I am not very optimistic about this government," describing it as an "extreme, far-right government that does not support peace."
  
Assad's comments came as a split appeared Sunday within the Israeli government of hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu on possible talks with Syria.
 
After firebrand Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he could not see Syria as "a real partner for any type of agreement" in a newspaper interview Saturday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told reporters that Tehran had an interest in holding talks with Damascus. "Negotiations with Syria should always be part of the Israeli government's agenda," he said Sunday.
 
Assad was due to arrive in Vienna Sunday for a two-day working visit, during which he was to meet his Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer to discuss bilateral economic and cultural issues as well the political challenges in the Middle East and Syria's role in the region.