Abu al-Gheit denies conveying a message from Damascus to Tel Aviv

The Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit has denied that he had carried a Syrian message over negotiations with Israel, but he indicated that he notified Shalom of Damascus's readiness to resume these negotiations and received no answer to that.

Abu al-Gheit stressed his country's support to the Syrian proposal to resuming the dialogue. He said that Damascus seeks to negotiate according to the land-for-peace principle and the UN Security Council resolutions. For his part, Shalom admitted that his government made secret contacts since one and a half years with persons close to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and relatives to him but no results were achieved.

Shalom described these secret talks as positive during which various thoughts were debated. Replying to a question on Damascus's readiness to resume the negotiations, the Israeli minister demanded Syria to stop its support for what he had called "terrorist organizations," should Syria wants to prove good peaceful intention. He indicated that Israel still demands the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon.