Israel has reacted cautiously to a Syrian offer to resume peace talks by claiming it was trying to find out how serious Syrian President Bashar al-Assad might be.
In an interview with the New York Timespublished yesterday, Mr Assad urged Washington to help revive the talks that collapsed several years ago over the Golan Heights, land Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981.
"First of all we have to check this out," Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Israel Radio. "Our experience with Bashar Assad specifically isn't promising . . . [but] perhaps there is something unexpected."
Mr Olmert said Israel suspected Mr Assad's remarks were a tactic to deflect criticism of Syria's support for militant groups opposed to the Jewish state.
Mr Assad said the talks should pick up where they left off in early 2000 under the leadership of his late father and president, Hafez al-Assad.
According to the New York Times, Mr Assad said arrangements to return the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for security guarantees for Israel had been 80 per cent complete a few months before he succeeded his father as Syria's president.
Washington has reacted sceptically to Mr Assad's remarks.