Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dispatched two top aides to Turkey on Tuesday for a fourth round of indirect peace talks with Syria, an Israeli official said. The two countries launched Turkish-mediated talks and Turkish officials have said the sides will decide during the fourth round whether to move to direct talks starting next month.
Meanwhile, senior Israeli officials confirmed Monday that Syria has carried out a number of measures in recent weeks that reflect that it is taking talks with Israel seriously. According to Haaretz, Olmert said he was pleased with the Syrian measures and with the negotiations with Damascus. He predicted that Israel's talks with Damascus will soon cause Syria to come into conflict with Hizbullah and Iran.
"The Syrians will soon discover that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time," the Israeli leader conveyed.
