A message to President al-Assad from Japanese Prime minister

The Syrian foreign minister on Sunday in Damascus received the first deputy for the Japanese foreign minister who handed him a message addressed to President Bashar al-Assad from the Japanese prime minister.

Present a the meeting were the deputy foreign minister Suleiman Haddad, the director of the special offices at the foreign ministry Muwafaq Nassar and the Japanese ambassador in Damascus.

Discussions dealt with the tense situation in the region and the Israeli practices against the Palestinians in the occupied territories. Cooperation relations between the two countries, Syria and Japan, were reviewed.

The Japanese official expressed his country's support to the policy of development pursued by the political leadership in Syria.

In statements to the press following his meeting with al-Shara, the Japanese deputy foreign minister said he had discussed with al-Shara bilateral relations especially cooperation in the economic field.

The Japanese official expressed his country's concern over the prevailing conditions in the ME region and described these conditions as very grave, stressing the importance of the Syrian and Lebanese peace track and the need of exerting more efforts to achieve a progress on the two tracks.

The Japanese official explained that al-Shara welcomed a neutral Japanese role in the peace making in the ME region.