On resuming Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations
Syria, Politics, 5/22/1999

Sources close to the decision taking circles in Damascus said that the Syrian President Hafez al-Assad may, in a short period of time, assign a new official post to former Syrian army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Hikmat al-Shehabi who has been retired by the beginning of this year because he reached the retirement age.

The said Syrian sources told the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba' on Friday that the post al-Shehabi will acquire in the context of a new Syrian government will be directly linked to the Syrian-Israeli negotiations. The sources continued that Lt. Gen. Shehabi who kept performing special tasks after retirement at the directives of President I Hafez al-Assad is considered one of the prominent military-men in whom President al-Assad has a great confidence in his ability to resume negotiations in the security arrangements file, due to al-Shehabi's long experience in military matters and his deep understanding to strategic security considerations in the region, since this file of Security arrangements is the only point which is still suspended on the Syrian track.

The paper said that al-Shehabi had presided over the Syrian side to the security arrangements negotiations with former Israeli army chief of staff Amnon Shahak in two rounds, under the reign of Rabin's government.

The sources told the Kuwaiti paper that the US administration held contacts with the Syrian government following the results of the Israeli elections and urged Damascus on the need to launch early positive signals to encouraging Barak form a governmental team that responses to the requirements of the coming phase and to proceed in implementing obligation he had already told to the US administration to abide by Rabin's steps, who ( Rabin) reached with the Syrians an agreement on withdrawal from the Golan until June 41 1967 border lines.

The sources said that Damascus, in this respect already contacted the European Union M.E. peace process envoy Moratinos who visited Syria. Stress was laid, during Moratinos' visit, on the name of the European Union, on the need to resume negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks and an announcement was made by the Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa on Syria's readiness to deal seriously with the new Israeli government.

Previous Stories:
  Al-Sharaa confers with Moratinos   (5/20/1999)
  Israeli elections and Syrian officials   (5/19/1999)
  Damascus links peace negotiations to withdrawal from the Golan   (5/18/1999)

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