DAMASCUS, Syria, May 7 (UPI) -- Syria on Wednesday denied having had secret negotiations and sending messages to Israel to resume peace talks, and said such Israeli reports were meant to harm Damascus' "credibility."
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Syria "strongly denies all these allegations."
He said Syria had engaged in peace negotiations with the direct participation of the United States but refused secret negotiations at any level.
"Building peace is an honorable matter and needs no secret channels," he said in a statement. "It (peace) should be concluded in broad day light."
His comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday said he received several months ago messages from Syria seeking to renew peace talks and that Israeli Foreign Ministry's former Director General Eitan Benzur had meetings "to check the matter."
Sharon said that after the war erupted in Iraq "there was another such attempt and a meeting" but he decided "to wait now for about a month to see how events develop (in Syria)."
The Syrian spokesman said Sharon's allegations were meant to harm Syria's "Arab and international credibility."
