Despite indications that indirect talks between Syria and Israel are soon to be back on track, Syrian President Bashar Assad defiantly defended his country's relationship with Hizbullah, and said that although Israel insists the ties must be severed for peace to materialize, Damascus would continue supporting the group.

"Hizbullah has an issue with Israel and we have the same issue," Assad said in an interview published on Thursday by the Kuwait newspaper a-Sharq. "We therefore support the organization."

"We are speaking about a national organization with a religious agenda that acts in the framework of the Lebanese homeland," he said. "We see here a national party. It is therefore natural that we have a relationship with it."

Under the premiership of Ehud Olmert, Israel and Syria were engaged in Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks. The talks were suspended in December after Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, but recent statements by various officials suggest that the negotiations may soon be restarted.

Assad has at once voiced optimism about the prospects for peace and pessimism about reaching an understanding with any Israeli leader. In the interview, he reiterated his position, stating again that he sees no difference between the current Israeli cabinet and those that came before it.

"The government which was in charge before this one started a war and committed massacres in Lebanon," he said.

"I think that they're all the same - committed massacres in Palestine and supported the work in Gaza," the Syrian president continued. "There is no difference between Left and Right. We have our demands and those who are able to satisfy them will not constitute a problem for us."

Assad also struck a very militant tone regarding one of the more contentious issues in the peace talks: the Golan Heights.

"There is no escape from the an Golan," he said. "Either through peace or through war."