Spain says Syria should not be excluded from Mideast peace settlement

Visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Sunday that Syria could not be excluded from any lasting Middle East peace settlement.

"There will not be a final solution in the Middle East if there is not a solution of the Syrian-Israel relationship, so we need a comprehensive peace," Moratinos said at a press conference after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his counterpart Walid al-Muallem.

He said that the Syrian leaders conveyed to him the genuine wish in peace settlement in the region and promised to him that they "will work in a constructive and positive manner."

Talks between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights, occupied by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war, and since then stalled.

As for the internal dialogue among the Palestinians to form a coalition government, Moratinos said that the matter should be settled by the Palestinians themselves.

"I think we are waiting for the Palestinians themselves to get to some conclusion of a national unity government," he said, adding that "the only thing we can do is to encourage them."

Talks over forming a Palestinian coalition government aimed at lifting an international boycott on the current government led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) have stalled as the group has repeatedly refused the international demands of recognizing Israel.

Source: Xinhua