On Indyk's visit to Syria and Israel

The correspondent from al-Sharq radio in Washington on Monday said that the objective of the visit to be held by US Undersecretary of State Martin Indyk is to convey a certain message to both Syria and Lebanon, confirming President Clinton's assertions of wanting to resume negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks before the end of the forthcoming Israeli elections.

The correspondent added, quoting an official at the US State Department that Indyk will visit Syria within the coming days and that he will visit Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and Morocco, adding that Indyk's visit will deal with the question of south Lebanon at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been drowned in the question of south Lebanon, a matter which threatens his political future, and at a time when the Israeli candidates for the Israeli government are competing to give promises to withdraw from south Lebanon.

The correspondent added that Clinton is trying to exploit the small time margin located between before the end of the Israeli elections and the beginning of the US elections in order to concentrate his efforts during the period to be left of his term of office to resume negotiations between Syria and Israel and between Israel and Lebanon. The correspondent continued that Clinton will assure, through Indyk, his conviction that peace between Syria and Israel is useful for a comprehensive peace process and would be conducive to a parallel peace on the Lebanese tracks as well as be for the good for US-Syrian relations which Indyk will discuss in Damascus in order to boost bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Correspondent noted what had been stated several days ago by Indyk in that " the Syrian-Israeli negotiations which were stalemated by Netanyahu were very close to reach a peace agreement under the former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and after him under Shimon Peres."