Assad: Peace 'unavoidable,' but not until after US elections

Jerusalem Post | Associated Press |

Middle East peace is unavoidable but most likely will not be achieved until a new US administration is elected, Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Sunday.

In an interview with France-2 television, Assad said "we have no other choice than peace," but added that he doubts it will be realizable in coming months.

The administration of US President George W. Bush, according to the Syrian leader, "has no vision for peace" and lacks the will to push forward the process.

Assad said he had "much more hope" that peace in the region would be achievable after the United States elects a new president in November.

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed hope that Israel and Syria would soon launch direct peace talks.

"We have begun a process with Syria," the prime minister said before a high-profile Paris summit. "It is indirect, but I hope they will soon become direct contacts that will allow progress on this track."

Shortly after making his comments, Olmert met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who later met with Assad, Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said. Olmert told Erdogan that "he is absolutely serious about moving forward with the Syrians."

Assad was not immediately available Sunday for comment on Olmert's remarks. A day earlier, he said the talks could move toward direct contacts but suggested that wouldn't happen until a new US president was in place.

Israel, Regev said, thinks "it's a mistake to wait."

"If there is a willingness to negotiate now, now is the time," he said.

Assad and Olmert are both in Paris for a summit of some 40 leaders from around the Mediterranean region. Israel-Syria tensions are a key thorn in the Union for the Mediterranean, inaugurated at the gathering.

Also during the summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters that the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was a key to negotiations and that he had brought up the issue during talks with Assad in the belief that the Syrian president could exert pressure on Hamas's Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal.

He also said he had brought a "message of peace from" Assad to Olmert.

Sarkozy said direct talks between Israel and Syria would likely begin after the new US administration was sworn in but stressed that France would try to expedite the process.

Meanwhile, as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni addressed the gathering foreign ministers in Paris, her Syrian counterpart, Walid Moallem, walked out of the hall before her speech.

Livni said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict need not be an obstacle to cooperation between countries in the region.