A US Jewish businessman and peace between Israel and Syria
Syria-Israel-USA, Politics, 1/25/2000

In its Monday morning news bulletin Israeli Radio said that high-ranking Israeli officials asked the US Jewish businessman Danny Abraham to slow down the implementation of his plan to organize a visit for US Congress members to Damascus to meet with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

This plan aims at having the backing of the US Congress members for providing aid to Israel after signing a peace treaty between Israel and Syria.

The high-ranking Israeli officials told Abraham's representative it is premature to talk about a visit by a large number of US Congress members to Damascus while Damascus opposes taking measures for building confidence towards Israel.

The Israeli officials expressed their fears that linking the US aid to Israel to the negotiations with Syria will lead to the US Congress failing to approve this aid.

Instead, high-ranking Israeli officials suggested to Abraham's representative to organize visits to delegations from the US Congress to the Arab Gulf states and Morocco in order to give a push forward to normalizing relations between these countries and Israel.

In principle, the US businessman responded to the Israeli request but he, on the other hand, announced that the first group of the US Congress members will head for Damascus on February 10.

Previous Stories:
  Barak sends expert delegation to Washington   (1/22/2000)
  US tries to prevent collapse of Syrian- Israeli negotiations   (1/21/2000)
  Israel feels releif toward US role   (1/14/2000)

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