Al-Shara to visit Cairo, Riyadh

The Syrian deputy prime minister and foreign minister Farouk al-Shara intends to hold a tour on both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, very soon in order to confirm Syria's support for the two states against the American pressures they are being exposed to.

The visit comes at a time when the Syrian official dailies for the second running day criticized the American pressures on the two said Arab states.

The Syrian daily al-Baath, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party, called on Egypt to reject "the American bread." Official sources at the Syrian foreign ministry said that al- Shara intends "to make diplomatic efforts in order to assert the Arab national line and support the two countries" and that Damascus will exert efforts "to support the positions of Egypt and Saudi Arabia in withstanding the challenges imposed on them, on the ground of Syria's unwavering national stand."

The chairperson of the media department at the Syrian foreign ministry Butheina Shabaan said that al-Shara "will very soon make efforts and visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt for support and to confirm the national role, backing of brotherly countries and crystallizing a united Arab position." She added in a meeting with the press that Syria "will make efforts to support the stances of Egypt and Saudi Arabia against the "verbal attacks by the US against the two countries.

Al- Baath on Saturday criticized the US linkage of its aid to Egypt to an internal Egyptian judicial trial (the case of a civil rights activist), and also considered the case to be filed by relatives of the victims of September 11 in the USA against Saudi Arabia as falling in the context of a campaign of pressure against it.