Barhoum said he doesn't think the ties will be affected between Syria and Hamas and the resistance that Syria hosts. "We don't have any fears... there were talks in the past during the era of late President Hafez al-Assad and the ties with Hamas remained fine," he said.

However, Jihad Hamad, a Palestinian analyst from Gaza said "We can't say the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are serious due to the Israeli delaying and taking advantage of time to impose painful facts on the ground like boosting the settlement construction in Jerusalem, tightening the siege on the Palestinian people, annexing West Bank land and setting up small crossings they call checkpoints. These crossings divided the Palestinian cities to separated communities."

As Israel has no intention to give the Palestinian people their right of self-determination, there is no thing indicating a future statehood according to the American vision.

Hamad said "as for Syria, I think there might be an achievement securing an Israeli withdrawal from Golan Heights or giving Israel a 10-15 year term to prepare for its withdrawal, but this of course requires true intentions."

"I think the chances of success of the Israeli-Syrian track are higher than of the Israeli-Palestinian one because Israel occupies the Palestinian territories but doesn't occupy Syria. Syria is also a state of sovereignty and a member of the Security Council."

The solution might be as the one, which happened between Egypt and Israel about Sinai, creating a buffer zone in the Golan without any military Syrian presence, and there might be international forces as in southern Lebanon, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2008)