Palestinian president to visit Damascus - sources

May 11, 2009, 10:48 GMT

Damascus - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Damascus on Thursday, a well-informed Palestinian source in the Syrian capital said Monday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials will host Abbas in Damascus for discussions on diplomatic efforts to revive Israeli-Arab peace talks and the latest developments in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian politician told the German Press Agency dpa on Monday.

Abbas, the head of the Fatah faction, would also likely to discuss Palestinian efforts to form a 'national unity' government with Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

Syria hosts political leaders from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and other Palestinian factions in Damascus.

Egyptian-brokered talks on forming a national unity government are scheduled to enter their fifth round in Cairo on May 16.

King Abdullah II of Jordan was in Damascus on Monday for talks with al-Assad on proposals to restart the Israeli-Arab peace process.

Syria and Israel have entrenched diplomatic positions on the Golan Heights, a plateau on the border of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel that Israel occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Syrian officials have repeatedly said that the return of the Golan Heights to Syria must be a part of any peace deal with Israel. On Sunday, Netanyahu ruled out returning the Golan Heights in remarks to Likud Party ministers, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot reported.

Abdullah, in an interview with the London Times Monday, warned that a new Middle East war could break out in the next 12-18 months unless Israelis and Arabs strike a new peace deal.

'If we delay our peace negotiations, then there is going to be another conflict between Arabs or Muslims and Israel in the next 12 to 18 months,' he said.

The Jordanian monarch said the US government was finalizing an ambitious '57-state solution' for peace that he is helping to prepare. The plan would include proposals to settle Israel's disputes with Syria and Lebanon, and would include all 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

Abbas is expected to travel to Washington to meet US President Barak Obama, who will also receive Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the end of the month.

The Egyptian and Israeli leaders were are also scheduled to meet in the Sinai resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh on Monday afternoon.