Report: Contacts to resume Syrian-Israeli negotiations

The Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas on Tuesday quoted a European diplomat in Beirut as saying that the contacts currently taking place behind the curtains might lead to the resumption of negotiations between Syria and Israel before next June.

The paper also quoted well-informed sources in Damascus as saying that Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara carried a message to French President Jacques Chirac from President Hafez al-Assad informing the French president about total agreement between Syria and Lebanon towards welcoming the Israeli decision to withdraw from south Lebanon and call on him to take part in the international pressure to have this withdrawal be complete and unconditional as well as to consider this withdrawal as a chain in the framework of a just and comprehensive solution to the Arab- Israeli conflict.

The sources stressed that the Syrian-Lebanese coordination does not imply any reservations concerning the Israeli withdrawal, despite the continued doubts regarding Israeli intentions and motives.