Al-Assad confers with Iranian vice president

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday at the Damascus al-Shaab palace received the first deputy for the Iranian President Muhammad Rida Aref and members of the accompanying delegation. The meeting was attended by vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam, the information minister Adnan Omran, the Syrian ambassador to Iran and the Iranian ambassador in Damascus.

The president listened to a revision on the results of talks Aref held with the Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam and with the Syrian prime minister Muhammad Mustafa Miro.

Discussions also dealt with "latest regional and international developments and the deteriorated conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories and the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of the Israeli aggressive practices."

Bilateral relations between the two countries and means of strengthening them in all fields were reviewed.