Barak and the Middle East peace process

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday that Syria and Israel are currently making assessments of the conditions the Middle East peace process has reached.

In his speech before the chief editors of Israeli dailies, Barak added that there are "still difficult and painful gaps in the positions of the two sides," Israeli Radio reported.

SANA said in this respect that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has stated that Israel, at the present, enters a very decisive phase on the political level that will last almost four months, a phase which will be a crossroads for the possibility of ending the conflict in the Middle East.

In a speech he delivered on Friday before the chief editors of the Israeli papers, Barak added, "We will try to reach a framework agreement with the Palestinians concerning the final status and will seek to resume negotiations with Syria and Lebanon," according to Israeli Radio.

The radio, however, did not give further details either towards what it called the framework agreement with the Palestinians or concerning the resumption of negotiations with Syria and Lebanon, SANA reported.