News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) U.S. President George W. Bush offered Syrian President Bashar Assad a secret deal to pull Israel out of the Golan Heights in exchange for Damascus breaking off ties with Tehran, according to a report published Friday in the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida.

A PA source said Bush reportedly proposed "a quick and satisfactory solution" to Syria's dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights, to be finalized "within several weeks, before the U.S. presidential elections, in order to push the Middle East peace process, an achievement the president will be able to proudly present before leaving the White House in January [2009]."

The offer allegedly came in a letter sent via Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, who arrived in Damascus for meetings with Assad and other Syrian officials beginning last Saturday.