US predicts Syrian- Israeli negotiations not to be resumed soon
Syria-Israel-USA, Politics, 2/17/2000

The US has stated that there is no reason to have the belief that the Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations, frozen for one month, will be resumed shortly.

James Rubin, the spokesman for the US State Department, said on Tuesday, "I am not aware of any imminent announcement of the resumption of talks and I am not aware of any reason to think that there is an imminent announcement of the resumption of talks."

Replying to a question on news reports leaked from the Middle East on the possibility that US President Bill Clinton will announce the end of the bottleneck which has been obstructing the negotiations since the middle of January, Rubin added that Washington is still in contact with the two sides in order to re-launch the negotiations on the Syrian track.

He stated, "We continue to have contact with the Syrian government and the Israeli government about ways to build the best possible base so that when the talks do resume, that each side will have a higher confidence that its objectives in these peace talks can be met and that its needs can be met."

Previous Stories:
  US sees slowed Syrian- Israeli peace work during Davos summit, Moscow talks   (1/28/2000)
  Indyk stresses US efforts to resume Syrian- Israeli negotiations   (1/27/2000)
  Damascus declares its wish to send experts to Washington   (1/26/2000)

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