JERUSALEM -- Israel had secret contacts with Syria several months ago -- well before recent Syrian overtures -- but they broke down after word of the meetings leaked out, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said yesterday. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he was ready to open negotiations if Syria "stops helping terror." The secret meetings appeared part of an effort to restart peace talks between Israel and one of its most intractable enemies. Earlier talks broke down in 2000.
Syrian President Bashar Assad called last month for a resumption of talks, but Israeli leaders are split over whether to take up his offer.
Sharon said yesterday Israel would readily restart negotiations with Syria, once it stopped aiding and harbouring terrorist groups that continue to attack Israel. The main Palestinian militant groups, as well as the Lebanese group Hezbollah, all operate on Syrian territory.
"Israel is ready and willing to negotiate once Syria, of course, stops helping terror," Sharon said at a news conference for foreign journalists.
While peace efforts with the Palestinians remain stalled, Shalom and some other officials have been publicly pushing the government to accept Syria's offer to restart talks.
Shalom said yesterday Israel had secret meetings seven or eight months ago with people "very close" to Assad. "Unfortunately, after two meetings that the Israeli partners had with their Syrian colleagues, it leaked out. And while it was exposed, of course the Syrians didn't continue to negotiate through this track," he said.
Shalom said he had requested an investigation into the leaks, which he said have severely damaged Israel's ability to negotiate with its Arab neighbours.
In Damascus, an official with the Information Ministry denied there had been any secret contacts. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syria's policy remains linked to international initiatives that call on Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories and blamed Israel for the current stalemate.
Mahdi Dakhlalah, editor-in-chief of the Al-Baath newspaper of the ruling Baath party said Syria has repeatedly insisted it would not "do anything under the table. Rather, it puts all its papers on the table."
