Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad discussed bilateral relations Monday in Damascus, official SANA agency said.
The Iraqi official's groundbreaking two-day visit is aimed at setting up a free trade zone between Iraq and Syria, similar to the one Baghdad and Cairo agreed upon on January 18.
They also discussed "the situation in the region", said SANA, adding Ramadan's ministerial delegation and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq Al-Shareh attended the meeting in the presidential palace.
Before leaving Baghdad, Ramadan had said he would hold "detailed talks with the Syrian leadership on the continuing US-Zionist plots aimed at weakening the Arab nation and on means of facing such an aggressive policy."
Ramadan arrived in Damascus Monday with a ministerial delegation including Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Sad Al-Sahhaf, Trade Minister Mahdi Saleh and Transport Minister Ahmad Murtada Ahmad.
In Baghdad, the official INA agency announced the two countries are to sign a series of commercial, economic and technical cooperation accords as well as a free trade zone agreement.
Similar accords with other Arab countries "are being studied with a view to an Arab economic union, which has become a necessity to face up to economic blocs in the world," Ramadan said in a statement before leaving for Damascus.
Syria's official daily, Tishrin, said Sunday that Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustapha Miro and Ramadan were to sign a free trade accord Tuesday, which will merge them into "one market," in the words of Iraqi Trade Minister Mehdi Saleh, and be similar to a trade accord Iraq signed earlier this month with Egypt.
In Amman Monday Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb said his country would also be holding talks with Iraq next week to set up a similar free trade zone between them.
Tishrin followed up Monday by saying it was necessary for the economies of Arab countries to be complementary, adding that this was "not just a romantic slogan." "We must think of solutions within this context as not one (Arab nation) can achieve its development goals by remaining detached from the others."
"Strengthening inter-dependence among Arab countries will reduce their reliance on the outside world and will enhance the independence of their political decisions," the paper added, while calling for "a development strategy in the shape of an Arab common market."
"That is what Syria is striving for, through continuous and intensive efforts," the paper added.
Ramadan is one of the highest-ranking Iraqi officials to visit Syria since 1997, when the two countries started re-establishing relations, broken off in 1980 over Syria's support for Iran in its war with Iraq.
Another Iraqi vice president, Taha Muhyi Al-Din Maruf, traveled to Syria in June for the funeral of the late president Hafez Al-Assad, while in November President Bashar Al-Assad received Ezzat Ibrahim, number two on Iraq's ruling Revolutionary Command Council.
The warming of relations between the two countries is most clear in trade, which has risen to more than $500 million a year, according to Tishrin.
The two also share a common front over the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, accusing Turkey of taking water away from them by building dams for irrigation and energy.
Press reports have said Iraq and Syria in November reopened an oil pipeline closed since 1982, although Damascus has not commented on the reports. Iraq's oil ministry has indirectly denied the report, saying the pipeline was useless and that the two countries were considering building another one.
Damascus has also pushed for a lifting of the 10-year-old embargo on Iraq, and a dozen Syrian planes have defied international restrictions by flying into Baghdad since Saddam International Airport's reopening in August.
Iraq opened an interests section in Damascus in March and Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf said in December that Syria would open a similar office in Baghdad, to prepare for an eventual re-establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries. — (AFP, Damascus)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
