Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied Monday that he had committed to withdrawing from the occupied Golan Heights, as a precondition set by Syria for renewing peace negotiations. 'All that I said to the Syrians was that I know what you want, and you know what I want. There is no commitment beyond that,' Olmert told an Israeli parliamentary committee on foreign and security affairs. In a surprise, three-way announcement from Jerusalem, Damascus and Ankara, Israel and Syria said last week that they were holding indirect peace negotiations under Turkish mediation, the first such talks in eight years.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem had said that Damascus agreed to revive the peace talks, after receiving assurances via Turkey from Israel, that it was willing to withdraw fully from the Golan, to the border of before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.