Damascus welcomes Khatami's tour of the region

Damascus welcomed the coming tour of Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to the region which will begin with a visit to Syria.

The Syrian newspaper Tishreen said yesterday that Khatami's visits to Syria, Saudi Arabia and Qatar reflect Tehran's real desire to bolster its cooperation with Arab states, confirming that this positive development creates great relief in Syria that great efforts exerted to remove the obstacles hindering Iranian Arab relations have resulted in an improvement.

Meanwhile, the newspaper expressed its belief that some of the barriers obstructing the normalization of Iranian relations with the United Arab Emirates concerning the conflicted Islands can be resolved.

In Tehran, Khatami announced that he is due to pay a 10-day tour in the company of Iranian ministers of petroleum and foreign affairs.