Al-Assad, Gul contacts; Turkey to host the FMs, the summit in Damascus

It was announced in Damascus yesterday evening that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received a telephone call from the Turkish prime minister Abdullah Gul in which he thanked the president for the efforts made by Syria to ensure a regional consensus in order to avoid the American war against Iraq and the region.

It was agreed that the first meeting of the foreign ministers of the 6 states neighboring Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Iran as well as Egypt would be held in Istanbul this week, and a second meeting for the 6 ministers in Damascus at a later time.

The assistant for the US Secretary of State, William Burns, arrived in Damascus in an undeclared visit and he is due to meet with President al-Assad today.

Well-informed American sources in Washington said that Burns' tour in the region which started in Damascus has nothing to do with the efforts made by the countries of the region to convene meetings in Turkey or Syria to avoid the war, rather to complete the recent tour carried out by Burns in the region, adding that Burns will also visit Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

The sources added that Washington will observe with interest the regional meetings, and has not a perpetuated stand towards them and that it wants in the first place these moves not to be conducive to alleviating pressure from President Saddam Hussein.