French foreign minister Louis de Guiringaud arrived in Damascus on Friday (18 February) for talks on the ways France and Western Europe could hel- achieve a permanent peace in the Middle East.
M. Guriningaud flew in from Beirut, where he’d been discussing the current truce with Lebanese leaders. He was met by his Syrian counterpart Abdel-Halim Khaddam and Syrian foreign ministry officials.
Apart from meetings with Mr Khaddam and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, M. Guiringaud was also due to have discussions with senior Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) officials.
The talks between the two foreign ministers covered the “latest developments” in the Middle-East and the possibility of re-convening the Geneva Middle-East peace conference. M. Guiringaud praised Syria’s role in restoring peace to the Lebanon and said that France believed it was urgent to seek an “overall settlement between Arabs and Jews in the Middle-East.”
He added that France was ready to contribute to “guarantees in the framework of such a settlement. “The French Minister also called for closer links between Europe and the Arab World, claiming that Syria and France could help promote such links.
