Israeli sources and negotiations with Syria

Israeli political sources have expressed, in statements quoted by Israeli Radio on Wednesday, their belief that the resumption of Syrian-Israeli negotiations will not be made before the beginning of February.

The radio indicated that the office of the Israeli prime minister refused to comment on the news issued by the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot that Prime Minister Ehud Barak accepts the Syrian request for demarcating borders with Syria on the grounds of the June 4, 1967 border lines with slight amendments.

The radio added that the intensive US efforts continue to mediate between Syria and Israel in an attempt to bring them together to a new round of negotiations, which have been witnessing a bottleneck because of the repeated Israeli demands to have a written Israeli commitment to withdraw to the June 4, 1967 border lines.