Masalha and peace with Syria

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Nawaf Masalha said he is still optimistic toward reaching a peace agreement between Syria and Israel by May.

In an interview on Tuesday with Israeli Radio, Masalha added that all conditions show that Israel and its current government under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Ehud Barak wants to sign a peace agreement with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. He continued that both President al-Assad and Barak want the participation of US President Bill Clinton and his help in reaching a peace agreement.

He added that the Israeli Foreign Ministry asked its working staff not to use the word normalization because the Arab states, even those which signed peace agreements with Israel, do not want to use this word. It asked them instead to use "after-peace relations."

He added that Syria has refused since the beginning of negotiations to use this word and replaced it with "normal relations."