Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on Wednesday reported that a senior Syrian official told him Damascus has renewed intelligence-sharing efforts with the United States and Britain after a special request was made by U.S. president Barack Obama.

Hersh reported in the New Yorker that George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, relayed Obama's request, despite Syria being on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terror.

The White House declined to comment on Hersh's report, which also said that Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed to the request, but warned Mitchell that cooperation with the C.I.A. and Britain's MI6 would stop "if nothing happens from the other side." Advertisement

Hersh sat down with Assad late last year to discuss regional, diplomatic and security issues.

Assad said that he has not received a clear vision from the U.S. "as to what they really want to happen in the Middle East."
He also told the magazine "that the only thing that can protect Israel is peace, nothing else. No amount of airplanes or weapons could protect Israel, so they have to forget about that."

Assad went on to tell Hersh that Israel lacks true leadership as it had under former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

"They do not have any of the old generation who used to know what politics means, like Rabin and the others," Assad told Hersh. "That is why I said they are like children fighting each other, messing with the country; they do not know what to do."

Assad also stressed that a solution must be found for Palestinian refugees living in Syria.

"I have half a million Palestinians and they have been living here for three generations now. So, if you do not find a solution for them, then what peace are you talking about?" he asked.

"What, I said, is the difference between peace and a peace treaty? Peace treaty is what you sign, but peace is when you have normal relations," Assad continued. "So, you start with a peace treaty in order to achieve peace.... If they say you can have the entire Golan back, we will have a peace treaty. But they cannot expect me to give them the peace they expect.... You start with the land; you do not start with peace."

Addressing Iran's controversial nuclear program, Assad said that sanctions will only accelerate Tehran's uranium enrichment, and he urged Obama to accept the Iranians' position.