Israel Seeks Syria Talks, End to Lebanon Attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Syria to stop guerrilla attacks on Israeli forces in Lebanon after a roadside bomb killed three soldiers Thursday.

Pro-Iranian Hezbollah guerrillas claimed responsibility for the blast.

Netanyahu also urged Syria to restart peace talks with Israel suspended for nearly a year.

Asked by reporters to respond to Syria’s request for an Israeli goodwill gesture to restart the talks, Netanyahu said:

“A very appropriate gesture would be the cessation of this indirect war that is being conducted against Israel and its soldiers in Lebanon.”

In a statement released by his office, he said: “We wish peace with Syria and want to resume negotiations with it. But what we are seeing is that Syria, in effect, is enabling an unceasing war against Israel and Israeli soldiers in Lebanon through Hezbollah. . . .

“The most simple and basic thing that needs to be done at this moment is for Syria to restrain Hezbollah, stop the war and carnage in Lebanon and, of course, find with us the formula for returning to the negotiating table.”