Syria's president on Friday ruled out face-to-face negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the latter is not serious about peace. Speaking in Paris, Bashar al-Assad said that he had no Israeli partner ready to push forward the Middle East peace process, calling for lower-level dialogue under Turkish mediation and with French support.

"If Mr. Netanyahu is serious, he can send a team of experts, and we'll send a team of experts to Turkey. Then we can really talk, if they're interested," the Syrian leader said after talks with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)