Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday he was willing to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad "anywhere he wants" and discuss peace.

In an interview with Al Arabiyah TV, Olmert addressed the Syrian leader: "You know I am ready for direct peace negotiations with you," he said.

"Bashar Assad doesn't want to sit with me," Olmert continued. "He wants to sit with the Americans. The Americans don't want to sit with him. I am willing to sit with him. ... We'll discuss peace, not war, I don't want to fight the Syrians," he added.

Assad has often said he wants peace talks with Israel, and Olmert agreed. However, last month Vice President Farouk al-Shara said Syria wanted the United States to sponsor the process and that an American representative should attend the official meetings.

U.S. President George Bush indicated he would not stop Israel from talking to Syria, but Washington would not be involved in the process.

Syria's insistence on U.S. involvement would seem to strengthen Olmert's suspicions that Assad wanted peace talks, not peace, and that his main goal was to break out of an isolation imposed on his country and shift attention from the investigation of Syria's role in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

There have been intensified Israeli military exercises on the Golan Heights, as a lesson from last year's Second Lebanon War that showed soldiers and commanders did not train enough.

The director of Israel's military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, last month told the Cabinet that Syrian talk of renewing peace negotiations was "very superficial." It was building a military capability, but the Syrian thinking is "defensive reactive," he added, according to a participant in that meeting.

Comment: It's instructive to hear what Syria says which would be unusual for an American report. You see, in order for Israel to have peace with Syria it must return the Golan Heights it stole from them in the 1967 war. This is unacceptable to western propagandists so they always talk about Syria's link to "terrorism", supporting Hizbollah, etc. But they never mention the fact that all Israel has to do is return the stolen property. And the reason Syria wants the US and other countries involved is because they want security guarantees that Israel won't invade Syria to steal it again. So here it is:

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Al-Arabiya Television at 1311 gmt on 10 July interviews live via satellite from Damascus Abd-al-Fattah Awad, editor in chief of the Syrian daily Al-Thawrah, to comment on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's calls on Syria to hold direct talks with Israel without American mediation.

Awad starts by saying: "Let us overlook this propagandist technique of promoting the peace process - this is a propagandist technique that does not address the core of the matter, that being that if Israel is serious about peace, then let it give the Golan back." He adds that unless "occupied Arab lands" are returned to their respective countries, then all Israel would be doing is playing media games and trying to portray itself as wanting peace.

On whether Olmert's calls stem from the Rabin Trust, Awad says: "The trust forms a basis, and it would have been crucial had the Israelis capitalized on this trust and later the negotiations that were instead wasted by Baraq, now Israel's defence minister. The peace process could have gone all the way had the Israelis been serious about this process." Again he says that Israel's pro-peace remarks contradict its actions on the ground.

On why Syria cannot talk directly to Israel "given Syria's constant questioning of the US mediator's honesty," Awad says that the international community must play a role in the peace process, and calls on the United State to give up its role as "war-maker" for a role as a "peace-maker," adding that Syria also wants the involvement of Europe, China, and any country that can serve the peace process and a final conclusion.

Source: Al-Arabiya TV, Dubai, in Arabic 1311 gmt 10 Jul 07