No Talks With Damascus As Long As It Supports "terrorism": Israeli F.M.

JERUSALEM, Sept 7 (AFP) - Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Tuesday that Syria backed "terrorism" and the Jewish state could only consider peace talks with Damascus if this policy changed.
The minister was reacting to reports that Damascus may be ready for negotiations with Israel.
"Syria is a state that patronizes terrorism. Headquarters of radical organizations in Syria are still open for business and their training camps still up and running," Shalom told Israel public radio.
He was referring, among other things, to the politburo of the radical Palestinian group Hamas that is based in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"Should Syria change its policy and work towards peace, Israel is a state that aspires to peace and wishes to negotiate with all its neighbors," he added.
His comments followed a report published in the London-based, pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat on Tuesday that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad recently told visiting former US diplomats he would be ready to resume negotiations with Israel if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would similarly oblige.
The United Nations envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen told army radio that he was confident Assad was prepared for renewed talks with Israel.
"My impression is clearly that he is interested in going back to the table in order to find a resolution to the Syrian-Israeli conflict. I think there is an opportunity here, which my opinion is should be grabbed," Roed-Larsen said.
Sharon's chief spokesman pledged in the aftermath of an overnight air strike that killed 14 Hamas fighters in Gaza that there would be no let-up in the campaign against the Islamic group whether in the territories or in Syria.
"We will strike Hamas everywhere -- in Gaza, in Damascus -- in order to avoid the assassinations of Israelis," Ranan Gissin told AFP.
Israel occupied and annexed Syria's Golan Heights after the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.
Syria also fought alongside other Arab armies against Israel upon the Jewish state's creation in 1948, and again in the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Syria and Israel are still officially in a state of war although short-lived negotiations have taken place between the two countries.