PARIS: Turkey is ready to oversee a new stage of secret peace talks between Israel and Syria, resuming a role it had played until last year, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said here Friday. Historically Israel’s only friend in the Middle East, Ankara has in recent years served as a conduit for diplomatic exchanges between Israel and its arch foe Damascus about improving relations.
But Turkey was angered by Israel’s behavior in the January 2008 conflict in Gaza and ties have become strained. Last month Israel was excluded from annual joint military exercises and the back channel to Syria has gone quiet.
Turkey – a candidate for membership of the European Union – is keen to prove its usefulness as a peace broker in the region, and Davutoglu said it was ready to resume its “honest broker” role if asked by Israel and Syria.
“It’s for the two sides to decide that. Turkey would like the talks to restart where they left off, or else within a framework decided upon by the parties,” he told reporters during an official visit to Paris.
“We think that it will happen according to a calendar decided by the two sides,” he said, sitting alongside his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner.
Davutoglu personally took charge of five previous rounds of talks, acting as chairman of telephone conference calls between former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syria’s President Bashar Assad.
The talks were stalled over “one or two words,” Davutoglu said, refusing to go into detail over these obstacles.
The talks were suspended because of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza and since then, Olmert has been succeeded by his rival Netanyahu.
“Turkey showed the whole world that it was sincere, honest and determined in its role as Middle East mediator. All the countries that seek peace are our strategic allies, including Israel of course,” the minister said.
“As soon as the path to peace opens again I’m sure that relations between Turkey and Israel will return at the same good level.”
Meanwhile, officials said on Friday that Netanyahu and Assad will visit Paris next week on different days for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
France wants to play a more active role in the Middle East peace process and Sarkozy has worked hard to engage Assad in international initiatives.
Netanyahu will hold talks with Sarkozy on November 11. Assad will have a working lunch at the Elysee Palace on November 13.
There was no immediate indication if France had any specific proposals to break deadlock in discussions between the two countries. – AFP, with Reuters
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