Damascus: Damascus suspended its Turkish- mediated indirect peace talks with Israel because of the Jewish state's attacks against Hamas targets in Gaza, a Syrian official said today.

The official's comment came a day after Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Israel's air strikes and said he had plans to talk with the Israelis about indirect talks with the Syrians.

Israel and Syria held four rounds of indirect negotiations in Turkey after the peace talks were launched in May.

The talks have not convened since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would step down earlier this year. Erdogan yesterday said: "Today, I was planning to call Israeli Prime Minister Olmert regarding Israel-Syria talks but I canceled it. I am not calling because it is also a disrespectful to us."

The Syrian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for not being authorized to speak to the media, told The Associated Press that Syria s decision follows Erdogan's statements.

"After what the Turkish side said, Israel's aggression against Gaza closes all the doors in front of any move toward a settlement in the region," the Syrian official said. Syria is home to the exiled leadership of the Hamas that has been controlling Gaza since June last year when it forced out loyalists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Syria and Israel are bitter foes.

They held direct talks in the late 1990s and early 2000 but negotiations broke down over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Source : PTI