August 12, 1999
Web posted at: 5:48 AM EDT (0948 GMT)

DAMASCUS, Syria (Reuters) -- An official Syrian newspaper on Thursday rejected a call by Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy for direct talks and accused him of following in the footsteps of former right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The ruling Baath Party's newspaper al-Baath in a front-page editorial urged the government of Israel's new prime minister, Ehud Barak, not to insist on direct talks.

"Wasn't the statement by David Levy in Jordan about the Syrian track taken from the pocket of Netanyahu? Would the Barak government remain a captive of the past's complex?" it asked.

It said that direct talks would not lead to peace.

"We rejected in the past and reject now negotiations for the sake of negotiations. We are concerned about the essence of peace, its aim and objective," the paper added.

"Such direct talks do not end the occupation or stop the aggression. They do not restore rights," it said.

Levy told reporters during a visit to Jordan on Tuesday Israel was ready to resume peace talks with Syria, broken off since 1996, at any time and urged Damascus to start direct talks with the Jewish state.

He said: "It is now the time for both sides to do the act directly.. also there is no point of putting forward preconditions in order to see the reaction of the Israeli side."

But al-Baath said the role of the United States, as the main broker in the peace process which opened in 1991, was important to ensure commitment of both sides to peace.

It said Syria's insistence that talks resume from the point where they left off and the endorsement of a pledge by late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to withdraw fully from the Golan Heights were not preconditions.

"Why is Israel insisting on direct negotiation and the banishing of the U.S. mediator and others from playing any role in the peace process?" al-Baath asked

"Isn't this a proof of (Israel's) inability to meet the challenges of the peace process and its requirements?"

Syria says that Rabin had promised during talks which broke off in February 1996 to withdraw fully from the Golan, captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

Hopes for the resumption of talks increased after the May election of Barak, who promised to make peace with Syria, but optimism started to fade when Damascus accused Barak of failing to commit himself to a full pullback from the Golan.

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