The Syrian government is no longer demanding an Israeli commitment to withdraw from the Golan Heights as a precondition for resuming peace talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, Xinhua reported.
"When I met with (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy, he told me that the Syrians are ready to drop the precondition, but they do not want direct negotiations," Netanyahu was quoted by local daily Ha'aretz as telling the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Jerusalem.
"Rather, they want talks through mediation," said the Israeli prime minister.
Meanwhile, local daily The Jerusalem Post cited Netanyahu as saying that Sarkozy told him that "The Syrians are willing to remove any preconditions, but are insisting on Turkish mediation."
According to Netanyahu, initially he conveyed a message to Damascus saying that Israel was willing to restart negotiations without any precondition, but he received a response stressing that Syria will not retract their precondition of an Israeli commitment to withdraw from the Golan Heights beforehand.
During Netanyahu's trip to Paris in November, Sarkozy told him that Syria was actually willing to retract all preconditions for talks, but it did adhere to its demand of a third-party mediator to bridge the gaps between the two sides, said Ha'aretz.
"I told him (Sarkozy) that I prefer direct negotiations, but if they want a mediator we want the French for the job," Netanyahu said.
Commenting on Turkey, which midwifed four rounds of indirect negotiations between the two long-time enemies last year when Ehud Olmert was in power, but Netanyahu said in November that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "has not strengthened his image as an objective, fair mediator."
Relations between Israel and Turkey have been noticeably strained since Israel's large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip last winter. The Turkish government strongly condemned the offensive.