By SPA
Damascus : Syria’s foreign minister said his country was not seeking a military solution to its conflict with Israel and was prepared for negotiations, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV reported Wednesday, according to dpa.
Walid al-Moallem told al-Arabiya TV that Syria was prepared to hold talks with the Israelis in line with its drive for peace.
“Syria is not looking for a military solution,” he said.
The minister explained that his country had already accepted the principle of negotiations when it attended a peace conference in Madrid in 1991 and the US-sponsored parley in Annapolis in November last year.
At the Madrid peace conference, which had been sponsored by the United States and the then Soviet Union, Israel entered for the first time into direct talks with Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinians.
Al-Moallem reiterated Syria’s stance that any negotiations with Israel should go side by side with separate talks between Israel and the Palestinians and the Lebanese.