Report: Mubarak to convey verbal message to President al-Assad

The Kuwaiti daily al-Watan reported on Sunday that Egyptian diplomatic sources in Kuwait had asserted that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will convey to his Syrian counterpart, Hafez al-Assad, a verbal message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

The message related to Israel's desire to reactivate and restore contacts and negotiations with the Syrian side within the coming two months in the US, and then these negotiations to be transferred within six months to one of the Middle East states in order to be completed and to crystallize a final agreement that provides for Israel's withdrawal from the Golan to the ultimate goal of establishing political and economic cooperation between Damascus and Tel Aviv.

The sources stated that certain agreements on reactivating the Middle East peace process on the Arab tracks had been agreed upon between Mubarak and Barak during their meeting in Alexandria two days ago, and the end of this month will witness certain progress or tangible steps in light of the Israeli obligations presented by Barak to the Egyptian side.

The sources continued that a fundamental agreement was reached between Mubarak and Barak that provides for Israel to pledge to end the negotiations promptly on all Arab tracks, within 18 months, and that emphasizes the importance that all negotiations should start simultaneously without any delay or obstructing one track at the expense of the other.

The sources said that President Mubarak has strongly opposed a proposal made by Barak stating to merge the implementation of the Wye River agreement with the final status negotiations.

Mubarak stressed the importance that the government of Barak complete the Wye River agreement very soon before starting negotiations on final status.