Deputy Israeli FM: Conditions not yet ripe for progress on Syria track

JERUSALEM, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Conditions were not yet ripe for any progress on the Syrian diplomatic track, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Army Radio on Monday.

Ayalon's words came after a report published on Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, which said senior U.S. diplomat Fred Hoff will meet with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on Monday and present Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak with a document entitled "Marking the border between Syria and Israel."

The document includes a future border route, based on an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel seized in 1967 and annexed in 1981 with no recognition of the international community, said the report.

Ayalon confirmed to Army Radio that Hoff would be arriving in Israel. However, he said the U.S. diplomat would not present any maps or border routes, adding that future talks with Syria would begin without preconditions.

Syria has said it would resume indirect peace talks with Netanyahu government as long as they focused on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Nevertheless, Netanyahu has repeatedly voiced opposition to withdrawing from the strategic plateau.

After Israel launched military offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in late December, Syria formally suspended indirect peace talks with the Jewish state which began last May under the mediation of Turkey.