JERUSALEM, May 21: Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday they had resumed peace talks through Turkish mediators after an eight-year freeze, with Damascus saying it had a prior Israeli undertaking to return the whole of the occupied Golan Heights.

“Israel and Syria began indirect peace talks under Turkish auspices,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the talks were aimed at paving the ground “for the resumption of direct negotiations aimed at achieving just and comprehensive peace in the region.”

Muallem told AFP Damascus had received Israeli commitments for a full withdrawal from the strategic plateau which the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 — a move never recognised by the international community.

A full withdrawal from the Golan, which overlooks large parts of northern Israel, would also retrace the border on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main water source.

A senior Israeli official insisted there had been no change to Israel’s policy of accepting the principle of a withdrawal from the Golan as part of a peace deal without specifying the depth of any pullout at this stage.

Two top Olmert advisors — Shalom Turgeman and Yoram Turbowitz — arrived in Ankara on Monday for talks with Turkish diplomats who also met Syrian officials, Israeli sources said.

Olmert’s office said Syria and Israel “decided to conduct the dialogue in a serious and continuous manner in a bid to reach a comprehensive peace.”

The United States welcomed the move. “We think that the expansion of the circle of peace would be a good thing. And of course it would be very very helpful if that included an agreement with Syria,” said David Welch, assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs.

But a senior US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Washington’s priority was to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians by the end of the year.

The last round of Syrian-Israeli peace talks broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan, which is now home to more than 15,000 Israelis and over 18,000 Syrians, mostly Druze.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month said Turkey had passed on a message from Israel expressing its readiness to swap the Golan for peace.

Housing Minister Zeev Boim, of Olmert’s centrist Kadima party, said he opposes “in principle any withdrawal from the Golan Heights”. “Nevertheless we should hear exactly how and on what issues the negotiations are held,” Boim said.

“A peace agreement can be reached with the Syrians only if they end all terror activities, including supporting and arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and giving up its strategic dependence on Iran,” he added.—AFP