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Syrian president travels to Egypt on first visit abroad |
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October 2, 2000
CAIRO (AP) - Syrian leader Bashar Assad was immersing himself in foreign policy matters in his first trip abroad as president, traveling Sunday to Egypt for talks including two top regional issues: Iraq and Mideast peacemaking. Assad arrived in Cairo in the afternoon at the head of a delegation that included Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa. The Syrian leader received a red-carpet welcome from President Hosni Mubarak at the presidential palace, where a band played the national anthem of each country. Assad shook hands with members of the Egyptian Cabinet before heading into the first of at least three planned meetings with Mubarak during a visit that ends Monday. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said Saturday that the Egyptian-Syrian talks would include the Middle East peace process, Iraq, preparations for an Arab summit and relations between Egypt and Syria. Assad, 35, has focused on domestic issues - particularly taking steps to modernize his nation's bureaucracy and revive its stagnant economy - since his father, Hafez Assad, died in June after 30 years in power. The late Syrian president had rarely traveled abroad. In his last few years, however, he had sent his ophthalmologist son on foreign trips as his envoy - all part of grooming Bashar Assad for the job he now holds. Moussa didn't provide specifics about the subjects he said the two presidents would discuss, but Iraq and Middle East peacemaking are among top concerns regionally and globally. Their meeting comes as Iraq receives flight after international flight intended to challenge U.N. sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Russia, France, Jordan and Yemen have sent flights recently with token humanitarian aid. Iraq is hoping other Arab countries will follow, despite U.S. complaints, easing its isolation. Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations broke down in January, with Syria demanding a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in 1967. Israel insists on waiting to settle borders until it knows what it will gain by returning Golan land. Assad has made it clear he intends to follow his father's course in any negotiations with Israel. "We have the urge to reach a state of peace, but we have no urge to compromise an inch of our territory," he said in his inauguration speech. Prospects for progress soon on either the Syrian or Palestinian peace track appear dim. Syrian state-run media, which relate government views, said last week that no progress could be expected now because of the U.S. elections and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's precarious situation as leader of a minority government. Israeli and Palestinian efforts to reach some sort of agreement on the toughest issues they face, including the fate of Jerusalem, have been overshadowed by the worst violence in four years. At least 18 Palestinians have died and more than 500 people have been injured in clashes between Israeli forces and stone-throwing Palestinians. Tishreen, a state-run daily newspaper, said Sunday that the trouble in Jerusalem makes visits like Sunday's between Mubarak and Assad necessary: "The latest massacre by the Israeli army shows that Tel Aviv's leaders do not heed international legitimacy, a fact that requires talks to find ways to restore Arab dignity." Egypt and Syria are on good terms but have had their share of differences. Hafez Assad's attempts over the years to rally Arab leaders to present a unified front against Israel gained little ground. He derided Egypt for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Still, Syrian state-run media indicated Egypt was a natural choice for Assad's first foreign trip. "Egypt always turns to Syria and, at the same time, Syria starts first with Egypt," Al-Thawra newspaper said Saturday in a front-page editorial about the upcoming visit. |