Al-Hayat: On the contacts between Syria, Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia

The London- based al-Hayat daily in its yesterday's issue quoted diplomatic sources in Damascus as saying that the contacts President Bashar al-Assad had made during the two past days with each of the Saudi King, the Crown prince and with the King of Bahrain as well as the Egyptian President aim at coordinating efforts following the issuance of the UN security council resolution 1441 and to avoid using this resolution as a pretext to strike Iraq; to end the sufferings of the Iraqi people and preserving Iraq's unity and territorial integrity.

The paper also quoted a high ranking Syrian official as saying that Syria's voting for the interest of the said UN resolution made it easier for Iraq to accept it and the return back of UN inspectors to Iraq.