The US and Arafat's visit to Syria

The Israeli daily Jerusalem Post said in its Wednesday's issue that the US has been closely following up the visit to be paid by the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat to Syria in September. A visit which will coincide with the 8th anniversary of signing the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The paper said that Syria has avoided Arafat to a great extent until the present time because he had signed the Oslo agreement. An agreement which has been cracked as a result of the violence which has been continuous since 18 months.

On the other hand, the paper noted that the US urged Syria recently to control the activities of the Hizbullah along the Lebanese- Israeli borders.

A high ranking official at the US administration said that the Syrians have recently told the Americans that they have no interests in escalating the situation on the border.

The paper added that Syria on Tuesday warned against that Washington's bias to Israel will affect the US interests and underlines its role as a broker in the peace process.