Lebanon will not take part in multilateral round

Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss said on Wednesday that Lebanon will not take part in the multilateral negotiations, unless positive progress is attained in the Syrian-Israeli peace talks which will be resumed on January 19.

In a statement he made in Beirut on Wednesday afternoon, al-Hoss added that Lebanon had not previously taken part in the multilateral negotiations, because they deal with matters of no concern to it unless Israel withdraws from its territories and carries out the international resolutions in this respect.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had announced that the ministerial session of a group for making the multilateral negotiations in the Middle East will be held in Moscow on February 1.

A statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that the Russian foreign minister talked on the telephone with his US counterpart, Madeleine Albright, on preparations for the session.