Syria: "There Are No Negotiations Between Syria and Israel"

So if negotiations are no going on between Israel and Syria via Turkey, what exactly is going on?

"There are no negotiations between Syria and Israel in Istanbul -- what is happening is an indirect exchange of messages via Turkey, to explore ways towards a possible negotiation," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told IPS.

"Let me make it quite clear that if we arrive at direct negotiations with Israel for the complete and unconditional return of the Golan Heights -- occupied by Israel since 1967 -- to full Syrian sovereignty, we will never accept a peace process for ourselves at the expense of the Palestinian process," he said.

"Palestine must have its own sovereign state, with Jerusalem as its capital, with the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and the right of return to their country of all Palestinians," Bilal said.

Not a lot of wiggle room there--not even for painful concessions:

"We demand that Israel withdraw from the occupied Syrian land of the Golan," Bilal said. "Israel is an occupying force that relies on American power and, therefore, the Israelis will not be making concessions; rather [the Golan] is our right."

...Bilal went on to claim that the very "notion of 'painful concession' does not exist."

We only wish.

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