On al-Assad's visit to Turkey

The Syrian journalist Muhammad Jamal Barout has said that the conditions for President Bashar al-Assad's visit to Turkey are not mature.

In an editorial for the weekly supplement of the United Arab Emirates UAE paper "al-Bayan" published on Wednesday, Barout explained that the decision- making circles in the Turkish military establishment do not want the Syrian- Turkish relations to be natural and they are persistent to proceed forward into the strategic alliance with Israel to the extreme.

He indicated that these Turkish circles link the continued political dialogue between Damascus and Ankara to signing a " declaration of principles" document in which the two sides vow to honor the international borders for the other. And what is intended here is Damascus legal recognition of Turkey's annexation of al-Iskandaroun Sanjak. A matter which led to President al-Assad's postponement of the visit to Turkey.