BEIRUT: Officials from Syria and Israel are set to resume US-mediated
talks in Paris in hopes of reaching a security agreement to defuse tensions between the two countries, officials said Monday.
A Syrian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t
authorised to speak publicly, told The Associated Press that the delegation on the Syrian side will be headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, Hussein Salameh.
The official said that Syria’s main aim in the talks is to reactivate a 1974 disengagement agreement that established a
UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and to secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces, which seized control of that buffer zone more than a year ago.
A French diplomat said that Syria-Israel talks would take place on Tuesday
in Paris, with the US mediating and said that France’s foreign minister was also meeting Monday evening with his Syrian counterpart.
The diplomat, who wasn’t authorised to give details about the discussions publicly, spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity.