On Beshara visit to Damascus

The Israeli radio on Sunday quoted the Israeli daily Maareve as saying that Azmi Beshara, member of the Israeli Knesset headed for Damascus to hold consultations with the Syrian leadership.

The radio added that Beshara met in Damascus with the foreign minister Farouk al-Shara and discussed with him the Israeli attack at the Syrian radar station in Lebanon, where three Syrian soldiers were killed.

The paper continued that Beshara also met with other Syrian figures to discuss recent conditions following the escalation in the Middle East region.

According to the Israeli radio, the Israeli papers said that Beshara does not carry any official message from Israel to the Syrian leadership, noting that this is the first visit, Beshara hold to Damascus following the election of Ariel Sharon as a prime minister in Israel.

Maareve, on the other hand, added that the Israeli police is making investigations with the parliamentary office for coalition which arranged visits for Arabs of 1948 territories to their relatives in Syria.

For his part, the chairman of the Likud bloc at the Israeli Knesset Zaeve Bweim has called for lifting parliamentary immunity from Beshara and to arrest him immediately after he arrives from Damascus.

The Israeli Hebrew- language radio on Sunday quoted Bweim as saying that Beshara makes Israeli security vulnerable through his repeated visits to Damascus.

The radio quoted Beshara's assistant, who it did not identify, that Beshara is visiting Damascus in order to help in preparations for Arafat's forthcoming visit to Syria.