SYRIA rejected an invitation from the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, to resume immediate peace talks yesterday, because the offer ignored the principle of land for peace.
"The declarations made by Mr Netanyahu in Jordan do not mean anything. They are just fine words, hollow and hardly serious," the government daily Tishrin said.
Mr Netanyahu urged Syria to resume peace talks on "all, but standing matters" during a visit to Amman on Monday.
"If Israel really wants to restart the peace process, it must comply with its obligations and respect its commitments without deviation," the Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr Faruq al Shara, said.
He was referring to the land for peace principles under which the Israeli Arab peace talks were launched in 1991.
"The Israeli government rejects the peace process based on land for peace and the international [UN] resolutions [calling for withdrawal as part of a statement]", Mr Shara said at a cabinet meeting.
Mr Netanyahu has floated a "Lebanon first" option whereby Israel and Syria would break the six month deadlock in their peace negotiations by agreeing on a settlement in Lebanon, where both states have troops.
But Syria accused Israel of trying to "duck out of its peace obligations." It said the main issue was an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
. An Israeli soldier was killed and two others wounded yesterday in an attack claimed by the Iranian backed Hizbullah against the Israeli occupied border zone in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army announced.