UAE islands issue debated by al-Assad, Khatami

The Kuwaiti daily al-Anba quoted well-informed Iranian sources as saying that the Damascus summit between Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Iranian President Mohammad Khatami discussed the question of three Gulf islands whose sovereignty is the subject of a dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates as a "gap in the wall of Iranian-Gulf cooperation."

In its today's issue, quoting the said Iranian sources, the paper added that President Hafez al-Assad proposed to his Iranian counterpart that Syria and Saudi Arabia can make a mutual effort with Iran and the UAE to settle this crisis on the ground of principles of good neighborhood and Arab - Islamic solidarity.

The Kuwaiti daily added that the Damascus summit also discussed the possibility of President al-Assad's "good offices" between Iran and Algeria to settle disputes which had emerged following the accusations raised by Algeria against Iran of supporting "extremist movements" in Algeria. The paper added that President Khatami also showed interest in purifying the atmosphere between Iran and Algeria.

The paper reported that according to the Iranian sources the summit also discussed Iranian- Egyptian relations and the possibility of eliminating suspended matters to restore full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The paper added that the question of Iraq was fully discussed between al-Assad and Khatami.