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Submitted by unname1 on Thu, 10/07/2010 - 11:16
Western efforts to renew peace talks between Syria and Israel are focusing on finding common ground, but nothing has crystallized yet and the chances of success are unknown, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said.

In his first public assessment of U.S. and French moves to relaunch the talks, Assad told Turkey's TRT television that envoys from the two countries are trying to accommodate Syria's demands for the return of the Golan Heights and Israel's security objectives.

An official Syrian transcript of the interview was published on Wednesday.

"What is happening now is a search for common ground to launch the talks. For us the primary basis is the return of the whole land. For the Israelis they are talking about security arrangements," Assad said.

Assad said that if the talks were to resume they would be initially indirect, similar to the last four rounds that were mediated by Turkey and broke off in 2008 without a deal.

"There is more than one movement in the region, including France and the United States ... a movement between Syria and Israel to search for ideas, but nothing has crystallized yet, and we cannot know what will happen," he said.

Reuters

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