(26 Apr 2009) SHOTLIST
1. Exterior of Israeli Prime minister's office
2. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak arriving for Cabinet meeting
3. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arriving
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ehud Barak, Israeli Defence Minister:
"An agreement with Syria is (of) highly important interest to the state of Israel, assuming of course that our our vital interests are met within this agreement. I think that negotiations should be on the government agenda all the time, permanently. Of course the opportunity itself should be judged upon details."
5. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom arriving
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ehud Barak, Israeli Defence Minister:
"We are in no position to tell the United States whether to open engagement or dialogue with Iranians or not, but we insist that such an engagement should be short, limited in time, being run under certain kind of set of soft sanctions, with the readiness to take much more powerful sanctions under Chapter 7 of the Charter of the UN if this short limited engagement is leading to a deadlock."
7. Barak entering meeting
8. Pull out from Barak to wide of Cabinet meeting
9. Various of meeting
STORYLINE
The US should limit any dialogue with Iran and be prepared to take a stronger position if such engagement leads to further deadlock, the Israeli defence minister told reporters on Sunday.
"We are in no position to tell the United States whether to open engagement or dialogue with Iranians or not," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.
But he added that Israel insists that such an engagement should be "short, limited in time, being run under certain kind of set of soft sanctions, with the readiness to take much more powerful sanctions".
Israelis have expressed concern over calls by US President Barack Obama for outreach to Iran, which Israel considers its top nemesis.
Israel's new foreign minister said Iran was the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East in an interview published on Friday.
Avigdor Lieberman told The Jerusalem Post that it would be impossible to resolve any problem in the region without dealing with Iran's nuclear programme and its support for militant groups opposed to Israel, such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
The comments come as differences have appeared between the hard-line government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Obama administration over the peace process.
Obama has said the US seeks a "two-state" solution, with the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel, while Netanyahu has not publicly embraced the principle.
Barak also told reporters that negotiations with Syria should remain on the government agenda.
"An agreement with Syria is (of) highly important interest to the state of Israel assuming of course that our our vital interests are met within this agreement," he said.
Netanyahu is in the process of formulating his government's foreign policy.
But he and Lieberman both have said they would not be willing to cede the Golan Heights, territory captured by Israel in 1967 which Syria wants returned.
Syria recently said it would be willing to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government, after earlier efforts broke off last year when Israel called early elections, as long as they focused on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
Israel has held several rounds of talks with the Syrians, most recently indirect negotiations mediated by Turkey last year.
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