RESPONSE: Syria denies Haaretz report as 'completely false'
By Haaretz Service Last update - 10:44 16/01/2007

The Syrian Foreign Ministry Tuesday denied a Haaretz report that
understandings for a peace agreement between Israel and Syria were
formulated in a series of secret meetings in Europe between September 2004
and July 2006, calling the account "completely false."

"No negotiations took place, the Haaretz report is completely false," a
Syrian Foreign Ministry official said in Damascus.

Official Israeli response to the report was more tentative. "This is the
first we have heard of the talks, we have never sanctioned anybody to speak
to the Syrians and the prime minister first learned of these conversations
through the newspaper report this morning," said Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman
for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

An unnamed senior cabinet minister was quoted Tuesday as saying that there
were no contacts between the two nations, and that the story was "a bluff."

"We don't know about this, and if this had happened, we would have known
about it," Israel Radio quoted the minister as saying. "This is not serious.
It's possible that there were contacts on the level of academics, it's
possible that there were reports to officials on a low level. But it did not
reach higher than that."

The minister dismissed the report as a "bluff," the radio said.

Former foreign minister Silvan Shalom said that he first learned of the
talks by reading Tuesday's paper. He said the last contact Israel had with a
Syrian representative was in 2003.

Dr. Alon Liel, a former director general at the Foreign Ministry, who took
part in all the meetings, was quoted as saying that he had not acted the
representative of anyone. Liel further declined to state whom he had
informed of the meetings.

The radio quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials as stating that Israel is
not holding contacts with Syria.

The officials referred to the sensitivity of the issue, in view of the
opposition of Washington, Israel's main ally, to negotiations with the
regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"Syria is trying to topple the Siniora government in Lebanon, a government
which the United States is trying to aid," the radio quoted one official as
saying. "Syria streams terror elements to Iraq, where they operate against
the United States military, Syria fosters [Damascus-based Hamas leader]
Khaled Meshal, it transfers arms to Hezbollah, hosts headquarters of terror
organizations, supports Hamas, and, in general, undermines any attempt to
reach a [peace] agreement

A figure described as a very senior official in the office of then-prime
minister Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying that "there was no reports to
Sharon, there were no reports to his office, there was no connection between
Sharon and Alon Liel, this never happened."

"This is absolute nonsense."