Al-Assad meets with Tareq Aziz

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today met at 11.a.m. ( Damascus local time) with Iraq 's deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and members of the accompanying delegation.

Present at the meeting was the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara, Talks dealt with several issues relating to conditions in the region and their development.

The president listened to explanations on conditions in Iraq as a result of the embargo.

Earlier in the day, the Foreign minister Farouk al-Shara received Aziz.

The meeting was attended by the Syrian deputy foreign minister, Iraq's foreign ministry secretary Nabil Najm and the chairman of the Iraqi interests department in Damascus.

Talks, during the meeting dealt with developments in the region and bilateral relations between Syria and Iraq.

Aziz, on the other hand, expressed pleasure over results of his meeting and talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

In statements to the press following the meeting with al-Shara, he said his visit to Damascus is aimed at exchanging views on bilateral relations between Iraq and Syria and issues of mutual concern, hoping that relations between Iraq and Syria will be always good.

Replying to a question al-Shara, said Syria backs lifting the embargo on Iraq and has expressed this at the recent meeting of the UN General Assembly. And this position was expressed by the Arab league and in the Syrian media.

Al-Shara added: Continued sanctions on Iraq are no longer justified, especially as the Iraqi people are the ones who are suffering.

He stressed that Syria is for lifting the suffering from the Iraqi people, taking into consideration all requirements pertinent to this issue.

Al-Shara said that there are exchanged visits between the Syrian and Iraqi officials and there is no problem in this respect.