Report: Qaboos convinced not to host multilateral talks

The Lebanese daily al-Deyar has stated that Col. Bashar al-Assad has succeeded in convincing Sultan Qaboos of Oman to refuse to host multilateral negotiations on water issues that are scheduled to be held before the end of the current year in Muscat.

In its Monday issue al-Deyar added that according to European news reports, the Egyptian government had earlier informed US Secretary of Commerce William Daley and Israeli Deputy Premier Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of its refusal to take part in the multilateral talks or to host the fifth economic conference before resuming negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks.

The Lebanese paper added that the news reports assert that Cairo stipulates tackling issues relating to nuclear armament in order to resume the multilateral talks.