Syria: Peace is impossible

Damascus: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad called on Tuesday for Israel's "massacres" in the Gaza Strip to stop, as he met visiting US Senator Arlen Specter, the official Sana news agency reported.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have made indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel "impossible", according to Turkish FM Ali Babacan.

According to veteran British journalist and Syria expert Patrick Seale israel's 'savage war' brings home a number of truths:

1) Syria's fate is tied to the Palestinians. It cannot distance itself from the Palestine cause, whatever incentives Israel might in future be inclined to offer it.

2) Only a comprehensive accord can bring peace to the Middle East - but of this there is at present no sign.

3) Third, by its violence and its brutal indifference to human life, Israel has demonstrated yet again that it is not ready for peace. Its primal urge remains to expand and to dominate, as it has since the creation of the state six decades ago.

Marc Gopin, the director of the Centre for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, who is a Jewish Rabi involved in inter-faith dialogue with Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Hassound, told Gulf News that he expected Syrian negotiations with Israel to falter from the beginning.

"Despite having separate priorities from the Palestinians, no one can expect a leader of Syria to negotiate in the wake of such a catastrophe against fellow Arabs."