Israeli official: Syrian- Israeli negotiations will be resumed after Geneva summit
Syria-Israel, Politics, 3/23/2000

The legal advisor for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Allen Baker, told the AFP on Wednesday that he is confident US President Bill Clinton and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad will agree on the borderlines between Syria and Israel and that Syrian- Israeli negotiations will be resumed after their meeting in Geneva next Sunday.

Baker expressed his conviction that Presidents al-Assad and Clinton will agree to the borderlines between Syria and Israel, the thing which was the reason behind halting the negotiations.

He added that Israeli- Syrian negotiations will be resumed after that.

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said that Israeli, American and Syrian sources expected President Clinton and President al-Assad to announce at the Geneva meeting on Sunday the resumption of talks between Syria and Israel.

The al-Ayam paper issued in the occupied Arab territories quoted the Israeli daily as saying that a high-ranking political source stressed that the majority of the provisions of the agreements are settled, and an Israeli source told the paper that Syria has conveyed to Israel through the US clarification concerning main issues of Jabal al-Sheikh, the borders at Tabaraya, and normalization and that talks are about a reply of an amended Israeli work paper conveyed to Syria as a sort of a US document few weeks ago.

A high-ranking source in an Arab state close to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad told Yediot Ahronot that besides the Syrian clarifications, further understandings were made in recent weeks on other issues, a matter which will avail the resumption of negotiations, and that Syria's consent to make the Geneva's summit came following the progress on the Palestinian track.

The Arab source stressed that President al-Assad is still persistent to postpone the implementation of normalization until after completing the withdrawal from the Golan, but Damascus had agreed with the document which was conveyed recently on "settling the question of Lebanon before the withdrawal from the Golan."

The same Arab source also claimed that President al-Assad is to merge the Hizbullah Party in the political life in Lebanon, adding that President al-Assad vowed that the commander of the Syrian troops in Lebanon, Lt. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, will start following the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon to deal with the issue of Hizbullah Party (to change it from a military force into a political party).

Previous Stories:
  Haaretz and Geneva summit   (3/22/2000)
  Kuwaiti paper and the Geneva summit   (3/22/2000)
  Israeli minister and the Geneva summit   (3/22/2000)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search