Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Peres calls for direct talks with Syria

|
|
 
  
Published: Sept. 6, 2008 at 1:29 AM

LAKE COMO, Italy, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres said Friday that face-to-face talks with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria could bring "major change" in the Middle East.

Peres invited Assad to Israel during a debate on the prospects for peace at the Ambrosetti Conference in Italy, the Financial Times reported. He said a visit by Assad to Israel or an invitation to the Israeli prime minister to Syria might be as fruitful as those of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt or King Hussein of Jordan.

"We shall see a major change," said Peres.

Peres said Assad does not believe effective negotiations will be possible until President George W. Bush leaves office.

Israel and Syria have been involved in indirect talks. The fifth round has been delayed by the resignation of the Israeli negotiator.

Topics: Bashar al-Assad, George Bush, King Hussein, Shimon Peres
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Traveling to the U.S.? If invited to a dinner party, bring a gift of wine, but not cash or toiletries...
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...