Al-Assad visits Jordan today

The Jordanian news agency Petra said that the Syrian Persident Bashar al-Assad will today pay a visit to Amman in order to hold talks with the Jordanian King Abdullah.

The agency explained that al-Assad will hold during his short visit which lasts for hours talks dealing with "current conditions in the region and means of enhancing bilateral cooperation relations between the two countries in all fields."

The two countries had demarcated their joint borders in November 2004. According to official Jordanian sources the border agreement eliminated the Syrian incursion into the Jordanian territories at 125 m and returned back lands at an area of 2.5 Km to the Syrian side.

This is, however, the first visit by the Syrian President to Jordan since April 2004. Jordan has recently expressed support for the idea of getting Syria involved in the Palestinian efforts supported by Egypt to reach a calm down with the Palestinian groups so as to give the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the opportunity to negotiate with Israel.