September 02, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 1, 1429

JERUSALEM, Sept 1: Israel and Syria will soon resume indirect peace talks with Turkish mediation, Israeli public radio reported on Monday.

An Israeli official would neither confirm nor deny the report, saying only that more talks were “very possible.” Israeli and Syrian envoys have held talks in Turkey — without meeting face-to-face — on four occasions since May, when the talks were re-launched after an eight-year freeze. They last round was at the end of July.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meanwhile travel to Damascus on Thursday to attend four-way talks hosted by Syria on Middle East peace, a government spokesman said in Ankara.

The Sept 4 meeting will bring Erdogan together with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

France currently holds the presidency of the European Union, while Syria heads the Arab League and Qatar is the current chair of GCC.—AFP