ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Thursday indicated readiness to reconsider his past negative attitude toward Syrian calls for peace.
Olmert seems to have discussed the issue at length during a face-to-face meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
Turkey had offered to help launch an Israeli-Syrian peace track after Syrian President Bashar Assad asked him to do so but the Israeli government's initial reaction was negative. One of the arguments was that the U.S. administration did not want it, the Foreign Ministry's former Director General Allon Liel said.
On Thursday Olmert seemed to have given Erdogan some room for hope. At a press conference after their deliberations, the Turkish prime minister said that in the coming weeks there will be talks with Syria and he will try to produce more positive results.
What we have to do for peace, we shall, he said.
Later, in a briefing to the reporters who came with him to Ankara, Olmert said, "I would very much want Israel not to miss an opportunity to make peace with whoever is possible."
He emphasized the word "peace." The question is whether Israel should agree to peace talks "unless there is a real chance to make peace," Olmert added.
This was an allusion to suspicions that Assad wanted a "peace process" to alleviate international pressure from his regime accused of involvement in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and help to terrorists but did not really seek peace itself.
"One must thoroughly check (the prospects for real peace) ... and not reach hurried conclusions," Olmert said. "We want peace, not a process ... We want to know whether this is really possible."
The impression he and Erdogan created was that Turkey would examine the matter though Olmert said Erdogan "did not initiate any specific offer."
