“As far as it concerns us in Syria we have national support to continue talks with Israel,” Assad said.

“However, there is a condition that on the Israeli side we also have those who want to continue the negotiations,” he added after meeting his Croatian counterpart Stipe Mesic.

The Syrian head of state praised Turkey’s efforts in the process and stressed that the presence of a “third side” would be necessary if the talks resume.

“We call on European countries to also give their contribution, to help Turkey but also us to be able to resume from where we have stopped,” he stressed.

Turkey last year brokered four rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Syria, focusing on the thorny issue of the return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

But talks between the longtime foes were suspended when the Jewish state waged an offensive against the Palestinian Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip in late December.

In response to Assad’s call, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said his country was ready to try to make progress towards making peace with Syria if Damascus and its allies took a “responsible” stand.

“Peace with Syria is a central feature of any stable regional settlement. Israel has tried in the past and will continue in the future to seek ways to advance peace with Syria,” he said in a statement issued by his ministry.

But Barak said renewed peace talks would depend on “a responsible attitude on the part of Syria as well as (Lebanon’s Syrian-backed) Hezbollah to counter the dangers of a deterioration in the region.”

Mesic, for his part, said “the suspended talks should resume and Golan (Heights) be brought back under Syrian sovereignty ... Security for Israel should be also guaranteed.”

Some 95 Croatian soldiers serve as members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights.

The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for the Golan Heights was established in May 1974 to supervise the disengagement of Syrian and Israeli forces after another Middle East war in 1973.