Ross pessimistic over the Syrian track

The Lebanese daily al-Safir said on Friday quoted the Israeli daily Haaretz as saying that the US Middle East peace process coordinator Dennis Ross as expressing pessimism over negotiations on the Syrian peace track.

In its Friday issue, the paper said that a report arrived in Tel Aviv from Washington indicated that Ross said in an interview that the US is not confident that President al-Assad is ready to pay the needed price for the "commodity he seeks to get from Israel."

The paper also said that President al-Assad is not confident that Israel is ready to withdraw from the Golan Heights, as the only gain that Israel is guaranteed from that is to pull out from Lebanon.