Syria to declare views on Iraq at conference
Syria-Iraq, Politics, 5/1/2007

Syria's Foreign Minister Valid al-Moualem said that his country will attend the international conference of Iraq's neighboring countries in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

He added that Syria will declare its view on the Iraqi issue at the upcoming Sharm el-Sheikh conference.

On the sidelines of the international Arab and Islamic conference on dissemination of information in the Syrian capital of Damascus, he said that he will personally lead the Syrian delegation to the upcoming conference.

"Our message to the international Sharm el-Sheikh conference will be that the Iraqi problem can hardly be solved through force and that attempts should be made to come up with a broad-based political solution that will prepare the ground to materialize national reconciliation in this country," he said.

"This is not only the view of Syria, but all Arab countries which attended the recent summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh declared the same," he added.

Concerning the possibility of meeting his American counterpart on the sidelines of Sharm el-Sheikh conference, he said that if Condoleezza Rice calls for such a meeting, he will accept.

In response to a question about Iran-Syria-Turkey tripartite coordination to bring up issues other than Iraq at the upcoming meeting in Egypt, he said, "The conference is originally meant to be attended by Iraq's neighboring countries.

"But representatives of the UN Security Council member states and world's seven industrial states will also participate in the event. It mainly aims to discuss the problems facing Iraq." The two day international Sharm al-Sheikh conference (May 3-4) will be held at the foreign ministers level.

The foreign ministers of Iraq's neighboring states plus Egypt, head of OIC, secretary generals of Arab League and UN as well as permanent members of UNSC and EU will take part in the conference.

The Syrian foreign minister and his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, in a recent phone conversation discussed the preliminary measures towards holding Sharm el-Sheikh conference.

US Department Of State spokesman Sean McCormack said today that any meeting with the Syrian would be "exclusively on Iraq. And let's be clear, it is not about Lebanon. Our position with respect to Lebanon and the non-negotiability of the fact of the tribunal or the non-negotiability of the fact of Lebanese sovereignty and support for democracy are, I don't think, in question. So if there were such a meeting, then it would be exclusively on issues related to Iraq."

Previous Stories:
  Stability in Iraq beneficial for Syria   (3/20/2007)
  Syria, United States exchange views on Iraqi refugees   (3/13/2007)
  Syrian FM calls up Iranian, Iraqi counterparts   (2/26/2007)

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