In the talks, mediated by Turkey, the next meeting was set for the end of July: at that session, they will decide whether to open direct negotiations. But the U.S. ambassador to Israel says that his country does not want to take part in the negotiations, as Syria would like.

Ankara (AsiaNews) - The talks were "constructive" that saw Israel and Syria address, indirectly, the "core issues" for a peace agreement.  According to a source in the Turkish government, which is acting as a go-between for the two countries, new rounds of meetings were agreed upon after the one that concluded yesterday.  The next one - it would be the fourth - should be held at the end of July.  At that session, among other things, it should be decided whether the following two meetings, scheduled for August, will continue to take place with Turkish mediation, or whether the two delegations will have their first face-to-face meeting.

The Turkish foreign minister maintains in a statement that "the two sides reiterated their common will to continue their talks and agreed to continue meeting regularly". "The talks were constructive, and the countries started talking on core issues".  

The atmosphere was dampened a bit yesterday by the United States ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones.  Participating at a reception in his honour hosted by the deputy defence minister, Majele Wahabe, Jones affirmed that the United States is not against the talks, but does not want to take part in negotiations between Israel and Syria.  Washington's participation in the peace talks is one of the requests advanced by Damascus, and seems to be aimed at securing military and economic guarantees to replace the ones currently provided by Iran, which is extremely unlikely to accept peace with Israel.

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