Syrian-American in 'secret talks' to brief Israel MPs

Ibrahim Suleiman will appear before the foreign affairs and defence committee on April 12 at the invitation of Israel's leftist Meretz faction.

"Mr Suleiman will address the commission on April 12. He was invited by MP Zehava Gal-On," the lawmaker's assistant told AFP.

In mid-January, the liberal Haaretz daily said Suleiman served as a Syrian representatives in two-year, secret informal talks with Israelis in which understandings for a peace treaty were reached.

The Israeli, Syrian and US governments at the time denied any knowledge of the contacts, which Haaretz said were held in Europe between September 2004 and July 2006 in the presence of a European mediator.

Alon Liel, a former foreign ministry director general whom Haaretz said was Israel's representative at the talks, welcomed Suleiman's invitation, saying he too had been invited to attend the parliamentary committee hearing.

"Ibrahim Abe Suleiman has already been to Israel in the past with his American passport and he met important officials," he told army radio.

"He will not come to Israel unless the Syrians agree," he added.

Lion emphasised that remarks both he and Suleiman would make to the parliamentary committee should reignite debate within the political and security establishment on peace with Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has repeatedly rejected peace overtures made by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent months, saying Damascus must first stop supporting militant groups in Lebanon and Gaza.

Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000, in part because of disputes over the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and unilaterally annexed in 1981.

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