Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel wants peace with Syria and the Palestinians, following a fierce exchange of words with Damascus that raised tensions in the region.
“Israel wants peace with all its neighbours. We made peace with Egypt and Jordan and we seek peace with Syria and the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting.
The hawkish premier said the renewal of negotiations on both tracks should have no preconditions and that any peace agreement must guarantee Israel’s “security interests.”
“I hope that we will soon renew the talks with the Palestinians and we are open for the renewal of negotiations with Syria,” Netanyahu said.
Israel and Syria were locked in a tense battle of words last week that peaked on Thursday when Israel’s firebrand Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would lose power in any war with the Jewish state.
The latest spat emerged after Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned on February 1 that if there is no peace agreement with Syria, “We might find ourselves in a forceful conflict that could lead to an all-out war.”
Syria responded angrily, with its Foreign Minister Walid Muallem telling Israel: “Do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities.”
But Barak reiterated on Thursday that “peace with Syria is a strategic objective” and tried to distance himself from the row, while Netanyahu also sought to ease tensions by stating Israel wants to renew talks with Damascus.
The last round of Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks between the two neighbours collapsed in 2008.
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