Israel Plans Parallel Talks With Syria, Palestinians

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Olmert said Israel will conduct parallel peace talks with Syria and the Palestinian-Arabs as his foreign minister called on the Syrian government to renounce ties with Iran and the armed groups it supports.

"Israel intends to conduct negotiations on both tracks, with neither coming at the expense of the other," he told the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, at a meeting in Jerusalem yesterday, according to a statement from Mr. Olmert's office.

Israel and Syria on Wednesday acknowledged they were holding indirect talks under the sponsorship of Turkey, negotiations that America has expressed skepticism about as it continues to push for the framework of an agreement with the Palestinian-Arabs.

"We're going to work very hard on the Palestinian-Israeli front," Secretary of State Rice said on Wednesday. "We hope for the best on the Israeli-Syrian side."

The Bush administration is pressing Israel and the Palestinian-Arabs to move forward in a peace process that was revived at an American-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Md., in November. President Bush has said he expects the sides to draw up guidelines for a Palestinian state by the end of the year.

Israel seeks peace with all its neighbors, the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said yesterday. "But Syria must understand that this means that it must renounce its problematic ties with the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as its problematic ties with Iran."

The last direct Israeli-Syrian peace talks broke down in 2000 when the sides were unable to resolve their dispute over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Syrians have said that Israel has committed to returning the strategic plateau.

Mr. Olmert told Mr. Kouchner that the sides know one another's demands, and the defense minister, Ehud Barak, said the Israeli and Syrian governments both know they will "have to make painful concessions."

Two top Olmert aides, Yoram Turbowicz and Shalom Turgeman, are representing Israel at the indirect talks with Syria in Turkey, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Ankara said.

Mr. Olmert's government may face difficulty in getting public or political approval for a Golan withdrawal. A poll of 500 Israelis conducted by the Dahaf Instituted found that 52% of those questioned opposed leaving the plateau. Some 29% said at least part of it should be given up, while 19% favored giving it all back.

Nearly half of those polled, 49%, said the Turkish-mediated talks with Syria are meant as a distraction as police question Mr. Olmert about corruption allegations, compared with 36% who said the prime minister's intentions are sincere. The poll was published in the daily Yediot Ahronot.

The director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University, Eyal Zisser, said he took the talks with Syria seriously. "The only question is if Olmert can deliver politically," he said. Progress with the Syrian government may also help "move ahead the Palestinian track as well, as the regional atmosphere will be more positive," he added.