Al-Qaddoumi: Arafat visits Damascus in mid-June

Head of PLO political Department Farouk al-Qaddoumi announced on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat will head for Damascus in mid-June, in his first official visit in five years.

Al-Qaddoumi, visiting the UAE currently, said so to AFP, adding that this visit will allow establishing strategic relationship with Syria.

This visit, raised few months ago, was in the core a meeting he held with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara' on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the Islamic countries which was held recently in Doha. He added, " We are waiting for setting an exact date of the first visit of its kind, since 1996." Al-Qaddoumi said the difference originally was on Oslo Agreements.

But now as Oslo Agreements exist no more, there is no reason of difference.

In reply to a question about the resumption of ties with Syria, al-Qaddoumi said, "Syria has announced that she will open the Front in case Israel attacks Syria and Lebanon." He gave no details.