Comments (0)Barak Meets Iraqi President
Fri. July 4, 2008Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met the president of Iraq on the sidelines of a conference in Greece. Barak and Jalal Talabani shook hands and briefly exchanged pleasantries during the Socialist International outside Athens. They were introduced by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who also spoke separately with Barak, a former Israeli prime minister. Since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Israeli leaders have called on the new Iraqi administration to recognize the Jewish state. But Baghdad has been cool to the overtures pending a resolution to Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
Turkish-mediated talks between Israel and Syria were set to resume. Envoys for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert flew to Istanbul for a third round of indirect negotiations with their Syrian counterparts, Israeli media reported. According to the reports, the talks were to take place at a hotel, with Turkish diplomats shuttling between the two delegations’ rooms. Israel and Syria announced in May they had stepped up contacts, with the possibility of direct negotiations being held in the near future. That has stirred speculation that Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad could meet on the sidelines of an international conference in Paris. But Assad has ruled out such a dramatic encounter before Israel commits to returning all of the Golan Heights to Syria under any peace accord. Olmert has been hazy on territorial concessions and demanded that Syria disengage from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas - something rejected in Damascus.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.