Syrian President Bashar al-Assad released a statement that in Turkish mediated negotiations with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, unprecedented progress was made.

“Negotiations addressed critical and decisive issues, advancing more than the talks in the past with [Prime Minister Ehud] Barak”, stated the Syrian leader in an interview published in al-Shark al-Awsat. “We addressed border demarcations and matters that were not raised in the past”.

According to Assad, at one point, he spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when Olmert was at his side and Olmert expressed a willingness for a total Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)