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| Today: 09 February 2010 Time: 09:52 PM |
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| Israel urges Syria to "stop supporting Hamas, Hezbollah" |
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| Politics 5/22/2008 6:35:00 PM |
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GAZA, May 22 (KUNA) -- Israeli Foreign Tzipi Livni said Thursday Syria
needed to "distance itself completely" from Iran, the Palestinian Islamic
resistance movement Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah party.
"Syria must also stop supporting terror - Hezbollah and Hamas - groups
backed by the Islamic Republic (of Iran)," reports reaching here from
Jerusalem quoted Livni as saying in statements to the press this midday ahead
of meeting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner .
"The Syrians need to understand that peace talks require giving up support
to terror groups," she said, echoing U.S. statements.
The United States and Israel consider Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist
organizations because both groups oppose the Arab-Israeli peace process.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a statement
Thursday affirming reports on indirect talks with Syria on the occupied Syrian
Golan Heights being brokered by Turkey.
The Israeli opposition parties renewed objection to the ongoing talks that
could lead to Israeli pullout from the territory.
Likud Party, chaired by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said it
would convene an extraordinary meeting by its MPs Thursday to discuss the
issue of talks with Syria.
Netanyahu is expected to hold a press conference ahead of the meeting to
confirm opposition to withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
Television polls found 70 percent of Israelis, mainly Jewish settlers of
the plateau, oppose giving back the Golan Heights to Syria, and believe that
Olmert was using the talks to distract attention from the criminal
investigation that could force him from office.
Olmert is taking big strategic moves that could endanger the future of the
Jewish state at a time he has no public backing, Israel Radio quoted settlers
as saying.
Israel captured the Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Damascus on one
side and the Sea of Galilee on another, from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem announced Wednesday in Damascus
that his country could not accept anything in the peace talks but Israel full
withdrawal from the strategic territory.
"This is not a precondition. It is rather a Syrian right," he affirmed.
(end)
zt.gb.
KUNA 221835 May 08NNNN
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