According to the source, there was “no problem with shaking Syrian President Bashar Assad’s hand.”Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not discussed the issue with Katsav and his aides said he has no intention of doing so.Earlier, Katsav said he had shaken hands with Khatami and Assad at the funeral on Friday.But Khatami vehemently denied this. “This claim is like other baseless claims made by the Zionist media in the past,” he said. “Recognizing Israel means recognizing occupation and force,” Khatami told the state-run Iranian media. “Morally and logically, we do not recognize the Zionist regime.
“As long as the Palestinian nation doesn’t feel that its rights have been met, no peace plan will succeed, but we won’t interfere,” Khatami said.Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he doubted that handshakes between President Katsav and the leaders of Syria and homeland constituted a diplomatic breakthrough. “I hope it can be a new beginning, certainly. But frankly, I doubt it,” Shalom said in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa.
