Did the Israeli FM meet with the Syrian Foreign Minister?

 Headline:

FM Livni denies report she met with Syrian counterpart in N.Y.

A Nazareth-based publication reported on Thursday that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had met with her Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem in New York this week. Livni's camp denied the report.

The Arabic-language weekly publication Al-Sinara reported that Livni and Moallem had met at the New York home of the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The publication, which cited Arab diplomatic sources in the United States as the source of the report, said that the emir surprised the two foreign ministers with a proposition to arrange a meeting.

According to the report, Livni received special authorization from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to meet with the Syrian official. The Israeli and Syrian ambassadors to the United Nations were also present at the meeting, Al-Sinara reported.


The meeting revolved around the urgent need to calm the escalating tensions between Israel and Syria, the report added.

The report is a bit thin, but it is not impossible. Topics for conversation in the alleged meeting might include the upcoming peace conference, the "alleged" Israeli air attack in Syria, the "alleged" Syrian support for Hezbollah and many others. Perhaps they even discussed Rami Khouri's intriguing offer to trade Lebanese land for Israeli peace with Syria.

 

Ami Isseroff