Report: US has no intention to separate Syrian-Lebanese tracks

The US administration has announced it has no intention to separate the Syrian and Lebanese negotiation tracks in the Middle East peace process.

A high-ranking US officials told the Paris-based al-Muharrir news weekly that the US administration, which continues its efforts to resume negotiations among sides concerned, backs the idea in that UNIFIL is to supervise the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon, in line with provisions of UN Security Council resolution 426, which authorizes UNIFIL the task of supervising the withdrawal arrangements stated in US resolution 425.

The same source added that implementing the two UN resolutions is not conducive to separating the two tracks, because negotiations are linked to UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, a matter which was crystal clear at the Madrid conference in forming the first and main terms of reference for the negotiating process on which the diplomatic process was built.