Damascus: Syria is careful to maintain good relations with Egypt
Syria-Egypt, Politics, 5/29/2004

Arab diplomatic sources in Damascus denied the existence of any " Syrian- Egyptian difference" on the ground of the differences in view points that took place in the Arab summit in Tunisia.

The sources said that Damascus is "careful to maintain excellent relations with Egypt," and therefore "talking about Egyptian- Syrian difference is not correct," adding that " a difference in opinion or view points does not mean there is a problem " in the relations.

The sources stressed Syria's care to maintain Egyptian- Syrian relations in particular and also Syria's care to maintain Arab solidarity in general. However, the withdrawal of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from attending the events of the second day of the summit was considered as a reaction to the summit's council rejection of proposals he had given towards Arab reform proposals and the G- 8 summit which will be held in the USA on June 8th.

According to sources attended the summit, the representatives of the Arab states were asked to chose between two proposals for representing the Arabs to the G-8. The first was that the Egyptian President to be the representative and the second was that the secretary general of the Arab league Amr Moussa. However, the two proposals were rejected from most of the Arab states. The sources said that Jordan was the only country which approved the Egyptian proposal by putting this item on the agenda.

Then the argument ended by Tunisia - which presided over the summit, to reject " this urgent proposal because it was not prepared for." A matter which led later to Mubarak's withdrawal.

The sources considered that most of the Arab states agree on the Syrian opinion to that talking about these matters " should be at the bilateral level " and that "no body can represent others and that what is applicable to Syria will not necessarily not be applicable on Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait or even others."

Previous Stories:
  Egypt's council's board chairman and sanctions on Syria   (5/26/2004)
  On al-Assad's visit to Cairo   (4/5/2004)
  Egyptian cultural days in Syria on Sunday   (4/3/2004)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search