CAIRO, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reportedly told a private audience Syria is ready to resume peace talks with Israel without pre-conditions.
Egyptian thinkers and intellectuals Tuesday quoted Mubarak as saying he had sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to inform him of the new stance of Syrian President Bashar Assad and to urge him to resume peace talks with Damascus.
One of the participants told UPI Mubarak quoted Assad as saying "Israel's policies constituted the main obstacle for resuming negotiations" and not the controversy over the point from which those negotiations should restart.
He said Mubarak urged Sharon "not to waste that opportunity."
Assad called on Israel recently to resume peace talks from the point where they were left off in 2000.
Syria insists it had reached agreement on many controversial issues during past negotiations conducted under the government of slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and there is no need to discuss them again.
