Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam has held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the stalled Middle East peace process and other Arab and regional issues. Khaddam said they also discussed the proposed economic summit conference for the Middle East and North Africa, the formation of an Arab common market and what he termed ‘the Israeli-Turkish alliance.’
The economic summit is set to be held in Qatar later this year and Israel might attend. Khaddam said regional economic summits were designed to serve Israel’s interests and to install it as a member and partner in the region. Holding those meetings, he said, would ‘only reward Israel for its violations of the principles of the peace process.’ Khaddam said he agreed with Mubarak that Egypt and Syria should draw up a blueprint for an Arab common market, ‘in order to move into a new stage of joint Arab action.’ Khaddam said he also discussed with Mubarak the ‘Turkish incursion into northern Iraq and the Israeli intransigence in the peace process.’ Turkey’s Islamic neighbors, especially Syria, are deeply concerned by its military accords with Israel, including one that allows the Israeli air force to fly training mission through Turkish air space. They have also condemned Turkey’s operations in northern Iraq against the secessionist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which is fighting to establish a separate Kurdish state in southeast Turkey.