King Abdullah to visit Syria on Sunday

A well-informed Jordanian source said on Wednesday that the Jordanian King Abdullah II will on Sunday pay a one day official visit to Syria during which he will hold talks with President Hafez al-Assad concentrating, in particular, on bilateral relations and coordination between the two states in aspects pertinent to the peace process.

The Jordanian source told the al-Hayat daily issued today that the Jordanian king will assure to President al-Assad the " importance of unifying Arab stances towards the peace process and the need of continued consultation in order to give this process a push forward." This is however, the third visit for the Jordanian King to Damascus after he paid two visits to Syria in April and July 1999, while President al-Assad paid no official visit to Jordan since King Abdullah assumed power in Jordan in February 1999.

The source said that the King will accompany with him a high ranking delegation including the Prime Minister Abdul Raouf al-Rawabdah, the Foreign Minister Abdul Illah al-Khatib, and the ministers of waters, the irrigation, industry and trade as well as the director of the Jordanian intelligence Samih al-Batteikhi.

Jordanian political circles in April remarked "coolness, in Jordanian-Syrian relations, and that Political coordination between the leaderships of the two countries had receded to the minimum, especially in regard the developments of the ME peace process on the Syrian- Israeli track."

Officials in Amman indicated that the visit of the Jordanian King Abdullah to Damascus comes just one week before his visit to the US, where he is expected to meet with US President Clinton.