DAMASCUS: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called in Syria on Tuesday for a more active US role in the Middle East peace process, saying the situation in the region was "very bad" and risked worsening further.
Medvedev — the first Russian head of state to visit Syria, which was a key Cold War ally — said Moscow was ready and determined to play its part in creating the will for a peace settlement.
He promised Russian assistance to Syria in reconstructing its oil and gas infrastructure and even in building a nuclear power station.
"In essence, the Middle East peace process has deteriorated," Medvedev said speaking alongside his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad after two days of talks in Damascus.
"The situation is very, very bad. It’s time to do something," the Russian leader said.
"I agree with President Assad — the American side could take a more active position.
"A further heating up of the situation in the Middle East is fraught with an explosion and a catastrophe."
Medvedev’s visit comes against the backdrop of a nearly 18-month-old suspension of Turkish-led peace efforts between Israel and Syria and a mounting war of words between the two foes over Israeli accusations that Syria has been arming Lebanon’s Hezbollah with Scud missiles.
It also comes as renewed US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians run into difficulties over Israeli settlement expansion in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
"There is not enough desire" on all sides to find a solution, said Medvedev, whose government is part of the so-called Quartet working for a Middle East settlement alongside the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.
"This desire needs to be stimulated," he said, adding that that was a role that Russia could and would take upon itself.
The Russian leader said that the end result of Middle East peace talks needed to be the liberation of the occupied Arab territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian place that could co-exist peacefully with Israel.
For Syria, the return of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community, is a non-negotiable condition of any peace agreement.
Turkey, Medevdev’s next port of call after Damascus, brokered indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel in 2008 but they were broken off when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip that December.
Before his talks in Damascus, the Russian leader held a "lengthy" telephone call with Israeli President Shimon Peres during which he was asked to convey a message to the Syrian leader, Peres’s office said on Sunday.
Peres said that "Israel has no interest in a war with Syria or in heating up the northern border and that Israel is seeking a genuine peace with its Syrian neighbor."
Neither Assad nor Medvedev made any reference to the Israeli message but the Syrian leader said that Israel was "not yet a reliable negotiating partner."
He called for Russian help in convincing Israel to take a "more constructive position" and echoed Medvedev’s call for a more active US role in the peace process.
Russia, which has repeatedly expressed willingness to host a Middle East peace conference, has been seeking to restore its influence in the strategic region by reviving ties with Cold War allies that had drifted after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Medvedev pledged Russian assistance with Syria’s ambitions to restore its role as transit route for oil and gas between the Gulf and the Mediterranean by helping it build up its pipeline infrastructure.
He also voiced Russian readiness to build a nuclear power station in Syria as it has long been doing in Iran — Syria’s main regional ally — over strong US objections.
Israel launched an air strike against a site in northeastern Syria in September 2007 that analysts said it suspected was a nuclear reactor under construction, something Damascus strongly denied.
Both Assad and Medvedev called for a negotiated settlement of Iran’s standoff with the West over its nuclear program.
"Russia and Syria stress their commitment to reaching a peaceful diplomatic settlement to the Iranian nuclear program and support efforts to look for an appropriate negotiated solution," their joint statement said.
