Kuwaiti paper and the Geneva summit
Syria-Israel-USA, Politics, 3/22/2000

The Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am issued on Tuesday stated, quoting a high-ranking Arab source, that the expected meeting between Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and US President Bill Clinton reflects the desire of the US president to close the Syrian file before the end of his term of office.

However, there is a meeting point between the Syrians and the Americans in that Washington realizes that President Clinton is the only person who is able to reach peace with Israel.

The source said that the al-Assad- Clinton summit will help Syria confirm its viewpoint which says that it is negotiating with the Americans before making negotiations with the Israelis and that Syria has imposed the US force which is not desired by Israel, where Israel insists that the US role be limited to that of postman.

The source said that declaring the summit stresses that Syrian- Israeli negotiations will be resumed shortly and that the effective forces on the international and regional levels will not accept an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon unless it is preceded by an agreement with Syria.

In this respect, the source asserted that the US openness toward Iran will eliminate a "pressing paper" on Syria, due to the fact that Tehran, which is backing the Hizbullah Party, will be no longer be able to "bargain" decisions taken by Damascus or Beirut concerning the US-backed Middle East peace process.

Previous Stories:
  Syrian commentator and al-Assad - Clinton summit   (3/21/2000)
  Berger: Meeting with al-Assad logical step for Clinton   (3/21/2000)
  Debate on Syrian and American working women at American cultural center   (3/15/2000)

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