Syria says no hope of peace with Israel

Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari said yesterday he saw no hope of peace with Israel under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"There is no hope under this Zionist administration for achieving just and comprehensive peace," Mr Otari told reporters after a meeting in Damascus with his Lebanese counterpart Rafik al-Hariri to promote economic cooperation.

Mr Otari reiterated that an invitation by Israeli President Moshe Katsav to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to visit Jerusalem for "serious talks" was merely a "propaganda invitation".

In Jerusalem, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that before Israel would consider peace talks, "Assad has to be ready to make serious concessions that are essential for him to establish his own credibility.

"It is up to him (Assad) to prove he is serious. We are waiting here for signs that he is," Mr Olmert told Reuters in an interview.

Israel has repeatedly demanded that Syria end its support for anti-Israeli "terrorist groups".

Mr Otari said Syrian "condemns all forms of terrorism... but it reaffirms that there should be a distinction between terrorism and the right of national resistance," the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported. His remarks were made before Mr Olmert's comments were published.

Mr Otari said peace had to be "based on the initiative of the (Arab League) summit in Beirut, the Madrid Peace Conference terms of reference and international resolutions that require Israel to withdraw from all occupied Arab land" seized since the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel has said it will not accept any conditions for revival of the US-sponsored talks that collapsed in 2000 over the future of the strategic Golan Heights, captured by the Jewish State in 1967.