Report: Israel and Syria had secret talks

AP

JERUSALEM A new report about secret peace talks in the Middle East.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz (hah-ah-REHTS') says Israeli and Syrian representatives quietly held two years of talks on a framework for peace before last summer's war in Lebanon.

The report doesn't identify its sources. Officially, Israel says it isn't aware of any meetings, while Syria calls the report "absolutely baseless."

But an Israeli official who doesn't want to be named says there were unofficial talks that the government didn't sanction.

Official peace talks between Israel and Syria broke down in 2000 amid disagreements over an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel.