Washington, Jan. 23, SPA -- Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa on Sunday said that Syria was willing to reopen diplomatic relations with Israel if the Jewish state were to offer "total peace and a total withdrawal" from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. In an interview on the U.S. broadcaster CNN, al-Sharaa also said Syria in no way supported the insurgency in Iraq, but in fact backed the political process and the upcoming Iraqi elections. The Syrian minister added that he believed the number of insurgents was overestimated, saying they numbered only in the hundreds. Damascus, however, remains against the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, al-Sharaa said. --SP 0003 Local Time 2103 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/234528