30/08/2009
Syria favors a peace deal with Israel based on implementation of UN resolutions, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday at a meeting in Damascus with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "Syria is working for a fair and global peace based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338," Assad was quoted as saying by SANA state news agency.
  
Those resolutions call for Israel to withdraw from territory it occupied in 1967, including the Golan Heights, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, in exchange for Middle East peace. Assad and Solana discussed "ways of reviving the peace process in the region," SANA reported.
  
The EU foreign policy supremo arrived in Damascus on Sunday as part of a four-day Middle East trip amid renewed international efforts to resume peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking in a press conference with Solana, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem stressed that "the Palestinian dossier takes precedence," whether it is "freezing settlements, lifting the blockade on Gaza or making east Jerusalem Jewish."
  
Following his meetings in Damascus, Solana is expected to depart later Sunday for Tel Aviv where he will hold talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni as well as Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, on Monday. 
In Beirut, on Tuesday, the EU High Representative will meet with representatives of the Lebanese authorities, including President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister of caretaker government Fouad Siniora, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, and Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh.
 
On Tuesday evening he will be in Cairo and have a meeting with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
 
On Wednesday he will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Minister Omar Suleiman.