Al-Assad confers with al-Hariri

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday met with the Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri who paid a short visit to Damascus. Discussions dealt with conditions in the region and in the Palestinian territories as well as bilateral relations, according to the press office of the Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al- Hariri.

In a press statement, the office said that President al-Assad received the Lebanese Premier at the Damascus al-Rawda presidential palace and the two sides reviewed developments in the region especially in the occupied Palestinian territories and issues of mutual concern to the two states. The statement added that al-Hariri also met with his Syrian counterpart Muhammad Mustafa Miro and discussions dealt with "brotherly economic relations and means of developing them in various economic, trade and cultural fields."

The meeting also dealt with drawing a draft project for a provisional plan to achieve the common Arab market and economic integration and founding a factory for textiles and spinning in Akkar and a joint tobacco factory in the Bekaa, two refineries for oil in Tripoli and south Lebanon and building a dam on the Orontes at the appropriate site and rescheduling the debts to be paid by Lebanon electricity department and exempting Lebanon from 50% of the total cost according to the directives of President Bashar al-Assad.

Discussions also dealt with the events taking place in the Arab territories because of the aggressive policy pursued by Israel against the Palestinian people and their heroic uprising and its policy of killing, and destruction of the Palestinian cities, houses and villages in order to undermine the steadfastness of those people who fight to restore back their legitimate rights.