国际新闻：U.S. downplays possible peace deal between Israel, Syria

"It's up to Israel to determine how it's going to conduct its diplomatic relations with Syria or with any other country," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said at a briefing.

"Syria has not to date taken any of the kind of positive steps that we would like to see happen with respect to Lebanon, with respect to its support for Palestinian rejectionist groups, with regard to the need to police its borders with Iraqi to prevent foreign fighters from moving across, and certainly we think that would be something that Israel would like to consider," Casey said.

Casey made the comments after an Israeli newspaper reported Friday that Israel has told Syria it could give up the captured Golan Heights in a future peace deal that would require Syria, in return, to distance itself from Iran. However, Israeli government has not made comments on the report.

The United States has accused Syria of supporting Lebanese and Palestinian terror groups.