By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : The United States is not sending an envoy to take part in the next round of indirect Israeli-Syrianpeace talks in Turkey, a U.S. embassy official said Saturday night.
The daily newspaper The Jerusalem Post quoted the official as saying that “there are no plans to send a U.S. envoy to the talks.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev, when asked whether Israel knew of plans to send a U.S. envoy to the fifth round of peace talks, said “we have no public comment.”
At a press briefing in Washington, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood also said that he had no knowledge of rumored plans to send Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch to the talks.
“I haven’t heard anything about that at all,” he said.
According to The Jerusalem Post, since Israel and Syria started indirect peace talks in May, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said on a number of occasions that serious movement could only take place with direct U.S. involvement.
However, Washington’s position has been that Syria has not altered its behavior to an extent that would warrant re-engagement with Damascus.
The U.S. above-mentioned comments came in response to a report in the London-based Arabic-language Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the fifth round of talks between Israel and Syria would be supervised by a senior U.S. official.
Earlier on Saturday, the newspaper reported that the United States plans to send an observer to the fifth round of peace talks.
The talks will be held in Istanbul in about two weeks at the presence of the senior American official, the newspaper added, citing a top European official.
An unnamed Israeli source quoted by the newspaper confirmed the European official’s statement, saying that the European official arrived in Israel on Friday in order to brief Israeli officials on the results of Thursday’s four-way summit in Damascus, which was attended by leaders of Syria, France, Turkey and Qatar.
According to the source, the European official raised the possibility that the fifth round of peace talks would be held on Sept. 18.
On Thursday, Assad said the fifth round of indirect peace talkswas postponed due to the resignation of chief Israeli negotiator Yoram Turbowitz.
The president also said Syria has put forward six points on peacemaking with Israel, which has handed to the Turkish side and awaits Israel’s response.
“In the event that Israel responds positively, we will move into direct negotiation,” Assad said, hoping for a new U.S. administration’s commitment to the peace process.
Israel and Syria announced in mid-May that they had started peace negotiations under the auspices of Turkey.
The key issue between the two neighbors are the strategic GolanHeights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day-War and annexed in 1981, a move that was not recognized by the international community.
Syria wants the return of the full Golan, but Israel in turn wants Damascus to cut ties with its foes, including Iran, radical Palestinian groups and Lebanese Hezbollah group.