DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday praised efforts by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter to help bring peace to the Middle East, the official SANA news agency reported.

The two men, who met in Damascus on Saturday, discussed ""the indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel,"" launched in May with Turkey as intermediary and suspended in July, the news agency said.
They also talked about ""the question of the Golan Heights,"" occupied by Israel since 1967 and which Syria wants back before signing any peace deal with Israel, SANA said.
Assad ""praised efforts made by Carter for peace"" while Carter ""expressed the hope that the new (U.S.) administration involves itself in the peace process in the region, which would help greatly in achieving stability in the Middle East and the world,"" it added.
The two men mentioned ""the tragedy facing people in the Gaza Strip because of the unjust blockade imposed by Israel,"" the news agency said.
The meeting also covered relations between Syria and the United States, tense for several years.
Carter told a news conference he hopes Syria-U.S. relations will resume with the arrival of the new U.S. administration.
He is also hoping that for reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian groups, the Fatah movement of President Mahmud Abbas and Hamas, and that a lasting peace is achieved between the Palestinians and Israel.
Carter hopes to meet Hamas leaders again, he said without giving details.
The former U.S. president last visited Syria in April, when he met exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, a meeting which prompted criticism from Israel and the United States.
Carter arrived in Damascus on Saturday after completing a visit to Lebanon, where he met political leaders to raise the idea of sending observers from his foundation to monitor next year's elections, a Carter Center spokesman told AFP.