Report: Chirac says peace agreement between Israel and Syria to be signed by the end of February

The Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am quoted an Arab senior figure who recently met with French President Jacques Chirac as saying that peace is proceeding in rapid strides between Syria and Israel and that the agreement between the two countries might be signed by the end of February.

The paper also quoted Western sources in Paris as saying that Lebanon might be the reason behind the Syrian tension, as Israel and the US had tried to pressure Damascus to have Lebanon involved in the first stages of the negotiations, a matter which was refused by the Syrian negotiator.

Despite the fact that the Syrian tensions reached implicit threats to withdraw from the negotiations, the western sources consider this matter as mere natural tensions in this sort of negotiations that will witness great ups and downs before signing the agreement.