Arab, American sources not optimistic over Albright's tour

Well-informed Arab and American sources in Washington have downplayed the chances of success by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to achieve a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process and expected a recession in the possibility of resuming negotiations on the Israeli-Syrian tracks following recent US-Syrian contacts.

These contacts included the arrival of certain Syrian answers to questions that US President Bill Clinton had discussed with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa in autumn.

Monte Carlo radio's correspondent in Washington quoted these sources as saying that Albright will face her most difficult talks in Damascus, saying that the answers Washington recently received from Damascus stressed Syria's unwavering stances and that Syria did not only ask for resuming negotiations from the point where they broke off but also for Israel's implicit approval of "Rabin's deposit," which means Israel's withdrawal to the June 1967 border line.