Egypt and Syria appeared ready today to end a 12-year break in diplomatic relations within the next few weeks, senior Egyptian and Syrian officials said here today.
The resumption of relations between the two countries, which have been at odds since 1977 over Egypt’s peace talks with Israel, follows a succession of contacts that culminated today in a two-hour meeting here this morning between the Syrian Vice President, Abdel Halim Khaddam, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
After the meeting, Mr. Khaddam told reporters a conference between the two presidents was imminent. Other officials said it would be a matter of weeks before ties are officially resumed.
A meeting between President Mubarak and President Assad ”is closer than anyone’s expectations,” Mr. Khaddam told reporters.
Other Syrian and Egyptian officials said high level talks between Egypt and Syria have been under way for at least four weeks. A senior Egyptian official described them as ”very frank, very clear, and very constructive.” A Year of Reconciliation
Egyptian and Syrian ministers of interior, information, and foreign affairs have met in the last few days.
The end of the Syrian boycott of Egypt is the last chapter in a year-long effort by virtually all Arab countries to resume ties with the Cairo Government and end a decade-long isolation of the largest Arab country.
Egypt was expelled from the Arab League in 1979 when it signed a peace treaty with Israel.
In the fall, Libya held high-level talks with Egypt that included a meeting between President Mubarak and Col. Muammar El-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader. These talks were followed by a reopening of Egyptian-Libyan borders, and the launching of a broad program of economic cooperation.
Libya and Syria were the last of the 22 members of the Arab League to abandon their poltical and economic boycott of Egypt, although neither has officially resumed diplomatic ties.
None of the Arab countries that have resumed ties with Egypt insisted that it sever its diplomatic ties to Israel as a concession for a return of their ambasssadors to Cairo. End of Cold War Cited
Arab diplomats here said the Syrian and Libyan attitudes were a reflection of the changing international climate, particularly the end of the cold war.
Both Syria and Libya have felt, the diplomats said, thattheir principal ally, the Soviet Union, was no longer interested in supporting their confrontational stance with the West, with Arab moderates, and even against Israel.
Egyptian officials cautioned that while Syria has not fundamentally changed its views of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the country is now clearly eager to work within an Arab concensus and to end its isolation in the Arab world.
A resumption of ties between Egypt and Syria would further consolidate what appears to be a general mood of reconciliation that has brought centrist Arab regimes and militant regimes such as those of Syria, Algeria, and Libya, closer together and prompted the militants to abandon strident stands of the past decade.
