News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Syria and Iran have signed a defense pact one week after Syrian President Bashar Assad and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced they are holding indirect talks towards a peace treaty. "The two countries pledge their mutual support regarding territorial independence and integrity in terms of international and regional authorities," according to the Iranian government news agency IRNA.

The accord called for the withdrawal of "foreign and occupation forces, which are the source of insecurity and instability in the region." Syria considers the Golan Heights, overlooking the Kinneret, to be illegally occupied by Israel, which re-gained the territory in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Assad has demanded that an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan be a condition for direct peace talks. Prime Minister Olmert said as recently as two years ago that the strategic Golan Heights would remain under Israeli sovereignty "forever" but he did not refer its future in last week's announcement.