Despite a report in a London-based Arabic newspaper that the U.S. was pushing Turkey to broker a deal between Israel and Syria, a senior diplomat in Jerusalem said Saturday night that the U.S. position on Syria hasn't changed. According to the report, the U.S. made the request of Turkey in light of last week's developments in Lebanon, in the hope that negotiations will keep Syria away from Hizbullah.

But the Israeli diplomat said that the American view of Syria – that it is a terror-supporting state – has not changed, and that it was up to Israel to decide what course to take with Syria. With that, the diplomat said, the U.S. has never vetoed negotiations between Israel and Syria.