During his visit to Italy on Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent a clear message to Damascus, that Israel is willing to resume diplomatic talks but without any preconditions.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has released a number of statements as he is on the path of improved relations with the White House that he too is willing to sit at the negotiating table with Israel based on resuming talks where they were halted in the past, demanding a total unconditional Israeli withdrawal from the entire Golan Heights, which was liberated in the June 1967 Six Day War.

Netanyahu told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berluscni that he continues to receive messages from Syria regarding resuming Turkish mediated talks.

Netanyahu stated that for as long as Syria is unwilling to agree to resuming talks without preconditions, it is irrelevant to discuss who will mediate such talks.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)