French President Jacques Chirac has met Syrian Vice-President Abdel-Halim Khaddam in Paris to discuss an Israeli offer of conditional withdrawal from Lebanon.
Khaddam, accompanied by Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara, said as he left Chirac’s Elysee palace on Sunday that Syria was not convinced by Israel’s proposal, and he believed France was not either.
No comment was immediately available from French sources.
Khaddam delivered a message a message from President Hafez al-Assad replying to a message sent by Chirac last January when French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine visited Damascus.
Syria, the main foreign power broker in neighboring Lebanon where it has some 35,000 troops, and Lebanon itself have rejected the Israeli proposal, saying U.N. Security Council Resolution 425 passed 20 years ago called for an unconditional Israeli withdrawal.
Al-Assad and Lebanese President Elias Hrawi are due to meet in Damascus on Monday to discuss how to respond to the Israeli proposal, which Syrian media have described as an Israeli diplomatic maneuver to evade peace.
