JERUSALEM, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Monday that the stalled peace process with Syria could augur ill for the future of the Middle East region.
"In the absence of an arrangement with Syria, we are liable to enter a belligerent clash with it that could reach the point of an all-out, regional war," Barak was quoted by local daily Ha'aretz as telling senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers.
"Just like the familiar reality in the Middle East, we will immediately sit down (with the Syrians) after such a war and negotiate on the exact same issues which we have been discussing with them for the last 15 years," said the defense minister.
Barak has long called for a resumption of peace talks with Damascus, yet his warning of a regional war is significant in that it is uncharacteristically sharp and strident, said Ha'aretz.
After Israel launched military offensive against the Hamas- ruled Gaza Strip in late 2008, Syria formally suspended the indirect peace talks with the Jewish state, which started in May of 2008 under the mediation of Turkey.
Syria has said it would resume indirect peace talks with Israeli government as long as they focused on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel seized in 1967 and annexed in 1981 with no recognition of the international community.
