BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – Syria’s president said in an interview published Thursday that his country may hold peace talks with Israel, but not until a new U.S. administration takes office.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Turkish mediation over the past year could lay the groundwork for direct talks and that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had passed a message to Syria saying he is prepared to hand over the Golan Heights in return for peace.

In an interview with the Qatari newspaper Al-Watan, Assad said the United States is the only country that can sponsor direct Syrian-Israel negotiations.

But he said the Bush administration, which leaves office in January, “does not have the vision or will for the peace process.”

Assad said Turkish officials passed on a message a week ago that Olmert had “assured the Turkish prime minister of his readiness to return the Golan.”

Olmert said he had sent messages to Damascus on peace prospects but did not reveal the contents.

His spokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on the reports of Turkish mediation and offer of a Golan withdrawal but said Israel is genuinely interested in restarting talks with Syria.

Syria’s relations with the U.S. have deteriorated in recent years. Washington accuses Syria of stirring turmoil in Lebanon and supporting terrorism by backing the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups and allowing extremists to cross into Iraq.

“We are interested in peace with Syria. We know what the Syrians expect from negotiations and the Syrians know what Israel wants from the negotiations,” Regev said.

The comments suggest some progress in back-channel contacts between the longtime enemies, despite heightened tensions between them in the past year over turmoil in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and over an Israeli airstrike inside Syria.

In Washington on Thursday, U.S. intelligence officials showed members of Congress a video and other evidence they said supports their view that the target was a nuclear reactor being built by Syria with North Korean help. Syria has denied building any nuclear facilities, saying the attack destroyed an unused military warehouse.

Syria’s relations with the U.S. have deteriorated in recent years. Washington accuses Syria of stirring turmoil in Lebanon and supporting terrorism by backing the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups and allowing extremists to cross into Iraq.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. The two countries last held peace negotiations in 2000 under former President Clinton, but talks collapsed over the extent of Israel’s proposed withdrawal. Israel wanted to keep a small strip along the Sea of Galilee to ensure its control of the vital water supply, a demand Syria rejected.

Martin Indyk, U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration, told the House Mideast subcommittee Thursday that if negotiations resume, Washington should insist on an end to Syrian support for Hezbollah and on Lebanon’s independence from Syrian influence.

Another witness, Peter Rodman, a former Pentagon, White House and State Department official over several decades, said he was “very skeptical of taking the bait” of Syrian peace talks with Israel.

Syria would resist giving up its large role in the region, including strong ties with Iran, because that would reduce it to “just an average country,” said Rodman, who is now with the Brookings Institution think tank.

Olmert has never committed himself publicly on a return of the Golan, saying only he is willing to resume peace negotiations if Syria drops its support for Hezbollah and Hamas.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that what the Syrian reports are presenting as Olmert’s position is “far from the full picture” because they don’t address the extent of an Israeli withdrawal or Olmert’s demands and Syria’s response.

In the Al-Watan interview, Assad said Israel is proposing direct negotiations but Syria for now is dealing through Turkish mediation. Assad ruled out any secret talks.

“We will first discuss (through Turkey) the issue of regaining the land in order to see the Israeli credibility, because we have to be cautious and careful in discussing this,” he said. “Perhaps with a new administration in the United States we can discuss afterward holding direct negotiations.”

Turkey has close relations with both Israel and Syria as well as with the United States.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry official said Washington has not sought to dissuade Israel from moving ahead with the Syrian peace track, but “they’ve made it quite clear it’s not a major priority for this administration.”

The U.S. is much more interested in Syria helping security in Iraq and stopping interference in Lebanon, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with reporters.

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Associated Press writers Joseph Federman in Jerusalem and Barry Schweid in Washington contributed to this report.

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