JERUSALEM - SYRIA has received commitments for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the 1967 border, its Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said yesterday.
His remarks came even as both countries officially revealed yesterday that they are holding indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators.
'We received commitments for a withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 line (during Turkish-brokered indirect talks),' Mr Muallem told Agence France-Presse during a visit to Bahrain.
'Indirect talks began in Turkey with Turkish mediation to pave the ground for the resumption of direct negotiations aimed at achieving just and comprehensive peace in the region,' he said.
In coordinated statements, the two governments said yesterday that they had launched an open dialogue with the aim of a comprehensive peace.
Israeli government officials said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had given Syria a 'formula' on the Golan Heights 'that (Syrian President Bashar Al) Assad wanted', though the details remain secret.
But Mr Eli Yishai of the Shas Party, a coalition partner in Mr Olmert's government, responded to news of the indirect talks by cautioning against handing the strategic plateau to 'the axis of evil'.
This is the first official confirmation that talks between Israel and Syria have resumed. The two nations are bitter enemies which have failed repeatedly to reach a peace agreement in the past.
They have fought three wars, and their forces have also clashed in Lebanon.
Peace with Syria would require Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel has demanded that Syria sever ties with Iran and guerilla movements hostile to Israel, notably Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hizbollah.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Lebanon, rival leaders have reached an agreement to form a unity government, ending an 18-month political crisis which had pushed the country to the brink of civil war.
The breakthrough deal - between the Hizbollah-led Shi'ite opposition and the US-backed Lebanese government - was reached after five days of talks in Qatar, and goes into effect immediately, its Arab mediators said yesterday.
As per the deal, Lebanon's army chief, General Michel Suleiman, will be elected president - filling a post vacant since November. A national unity government will be in place, composed of 16 Cabinet seats for the ruling majority, 11 for the opposition and three to be nominated by the new president.
The opposition will also enjoy veto power over major decisions.
'We have no future other than through internal unity,' Prime Minister Faud Siniora said at the signing ceremony.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NEW YORK TIMES, ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS
