Syria, Israel trade notes on Golan Heights for peace

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Cabinet minister said Wednesday that Israel has passed a message to Syria saying it is prepared to return the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace treaty.

Israeli officials declined to comment on the report, but the message could be a sign of progress in back-channel contacts that the two nations have reported in recent days.

Syrian Emigrant Affairs Minister Buthaina Shaaban told satellite television Al-Jazeera that the message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was relayed to Syrian President Bashar Assad by Turkey's leader.

The message said Olmert "is ready for peace with Syria based on international conditions and the full return of the Golan Heights," Shaaban said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due in Damascus on Saturday.

Olmert told Israeli newspapers last week that the two nations had exchanged messages clarifying what each would expect from a peace deal.

"They know what we want from them, and I know full well what they want from us," Olmert told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot. "Israel is open to peace with Syria," he told another paper, Maariv.

On Sunday, Assad told officials of Syria's ruling Baath party that the exchange explored the possibility of resuming peace talks. Israel "knows well what is accepted and not accepted by Syria," he said.

Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations broke down in 2000 over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which was seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Syria demands a full return of the territory, but Israel wanted to keep a small strip along the Sea of Galilee to ensure its control of its vital water supplies.