Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that the issue of the Golan Heights was not negotiable as Syria demanded restoring the occupied land by Israel.

"Peace is a strategic choice for Syria," Assad said in a televised address to the newly elected People's Assembly (parliament).

In the address, Assad also denied secret negotiations between his country and the Jewish state, but he admitted that many mediators had come to Syria to play a role between the two countries, saying that Syria encouraged them doing so.

Meanwhile, Assad said Syria did not put any precondition to restart peace talks with Israel while stressing that the talks should be carried out according to relative UN resolutions.

Assad has offered many times to reopen peace talks with Israel which has only met a cold shoulder from the Jewish state.

Peace negotiations between Syria and Israel foundered in 2000, largely over the fate of the strategic Golan plateau, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Source: Xinhua