Al-Assad is in Cairo today

A source in the Egyptian presidency said on Monday that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will visit Cairo today to hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak dealing with relations between Syria and the west, and the tension between Damascus and Beirut.

The source explained that an advisor for the Lebanese government, Ridwan al-Sayyed, will also hold today talks separate talks in Cairo with Mubarak.

Al-Assad's visit to Cairo comes one day before the visit of the US Vice President to Egypt Dick Cheney. The Egyptian officials refused to make a link between the visits of both al-Assad and Cheney. However, Arab diplomats watching the Syrian moves said that al-Assad may carry certain proposals that Mubarak wants to convey to the Americans in order to solve the crisis with Washington.

The Egyptian officials said that the talks between Mubarak and al-Assad will concentrate in the efforts to dismantle the crisis between Damascus and the west on the background of the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.