AMERICAN LEBANESE COORDINATION COUNCIL

Amidst escalating tension between Israel and Hizbullah, a former Israeli diplomat met Syria’s ambassador to the United States last week and was informed that President Bashar Assad wants to resume peace talks with the Jewish state, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday.
The report came amidst escalating tension between Hizbullah, Syria’s main ally in Lebanon, and Israel over the assassination in Damascus earlier this month of Hizbullah’s Imad Mughniyeh.

The report said Alon Liel, former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, met with Syria’s ambassador to the United States, Imad Mustafa, in Washington last week.

Liel, who heads a movement advocating peace between Israel and Syria, said he briefed the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem of his talks, the report said.

For two years, until the summer of 2006, the former Israeli official held talks with a Syrian-American businessman, Abe Suleiman, with ties in the top echelons of the Assad regime. The talks were held under Swiss auspices and with the knowledge of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the report said.

Liel and Suleiman prepared a document on a possible peace agreement which, among other issues, proposed a demilitarized buffer zone on the Golan Heights that would include a “peace park” for tourists.

Liel refused to comment on his visit Thursday, but sources at the Movement for Israel-Syria Peace, said that his visit to the U.S. focused on relations between Washington and Damascus, and included meetings in Congress.