( Reuters ) - Syria will not attend a Middle East peace conference set for next month unless the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are on the agenda, President Bashar al-Assad said in comments broadcast on Monday.
"If they don't talk about the Syrian occupied territory, no, there's no way for Syria to go there," Assad told the BBC, referring to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
"It should be about comprehensive peace, and Syria is part of this comprehensive peace. Without that, we shouldn't go, we wouldn't go."
In Washington, State Dept spokesman Tom Casey declined direct comment on Assad's views about the upcoming conference but he said the State Department would send out invitations at "an appropriate time", including to Arab League members such as Syria.
"Obviously it would be up to each individual country to decide at that point whether they want to attend or not," Casey told reporters.
The conference is expected to take place in Annapolis, Maryland not before mid-November, but U.S. officials say an exact time and venue have not yet been pinned down.
"It will take place sometime later this fall," said Casey.
Israel said it had no objections to Syria participating in the conference but it made clear that the focus should be on the Israeli-Palestinian track.
"We want Arab states there to support Israeli-Palestinian peace," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.