Israel pushes for direct talks with Syria "very soon"

By Zerin Elci

ANKARA (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on Thursday for quickly starting face-to-face negotiations with Syria after a third round of indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey ended with an agreement to meet again.

"With the Syrians, we are talking seriously and, in my estimation, very soon the negotiations will have to be direct," Olmert told an economic conference in the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat. "They will not be able to continue in the mode in which they are currently being held."

The third round of talks between the long-time foes started in Istanbul on Tuesday and ended on Thursday with an agreement to hold a fourth round of indirect negotiations in Turkey in late July, a Turkish government source told Reuters.

At that meeting, the sides will decide whether to move to direct talks starting in August, when the fifth and sixth rounds are scheduled to take place, the source said.

A Turkish foreign ministry statement described the talks, the first in eight years, as constructive. The government source said the negotiators were beginning to discuss "core issues".

There was no immediate comment from Syria or Olmert's office on the latest round of talks.

The talks centre on the fate of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel occupied from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Damascus is firm in demanding all the Golan.

Olmert has been hazy in public on whether his government would do so, saying only that "difficult concessions" may be required for peace with Syria but that he has made no promises regarding the territory.  Continued...