A sudden meeting in Damascus between al-Shara and Tareq Aziz

Tareq Aziz, the Iraqi deputy prime minister, convened with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus yesterday evening as he delivered a written message from the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Aziz also convened with Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara following Aziz's sudden arrival to Damascus.

Syrian and Iraqi officials refused to comment on the visit, yet sources who refused to be identified assured that "the visit comes in the framework of boosting the relations between the 2 countries and that Iraq assured to the Syrian president that it wants to break the Arab message it addressed to Israel in which Iraq assures that it will support the Syrian president against Israel especially after Syria's (test) launching of a long-ranged land to land Scud missile."