Baghdad and Damascus to form a free trade area

An Iraqi newspaper in Baghdad announced yesterday that Iraq will inaugurate a free zone for exchanging goods on the Syrian - Iraqi borders on Tuesday in the region of El-Kaem.

High-ranking sources stated that the Syrian government is currently examining the establishment of a free zone near the Iraqi border for exchanging goods.

The general manager of the general corporation for the Iraqi Journalist union's newspaper, El-Zawraa, Nema Allah Zaghir, said yesterday that trade exchange in this region will exist.

Meanwhile, El-Menam Saleh, the Iraqi minister of endowments and religious affairs, confirmed to the same newspaper that formal relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia have become nearly normal, saying that the pilgrimage season viewed a great rise in the level of relations between the two counties.