Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam made an unexpected visit to Cairo Saturday and announced that leaders from Egypt and Syria will meet soon to pave the way for normalizing relations.
Khaddam, whose visit was the first to Egypt by a ranking Syrian official in nearly 13 years, handed a written message to President Honsi Mubarak from Syrian President Hafez Assad on Syrian-Egyptian relations ruptured in the aftermath of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
Following extensive talks with Mubarak, Khaddam said that Assad and the Egyptian president would meet in the very near future to announce a set of tangible measures designed to fully normalize bilateral relations.
‘There will be a summit meeting in the very near future between the two presidents during which they would announce a number of tangible steps and measures to help normalize bilateral relations in the various fields,’ Khaddam said.
One observer said Mubarak and Assad were likely to meet Feb. 22 in the Syrian capital, ending nearly 11 years of estrangement between Cairo and Damascus. Mubarak and Assad met last May on the fringes of an Arab League summit.
Khaddam said full normalization of Egyptian-Syrian ties was not only in the interest of both, but also the Arab world as a whole.
Prime Minister Atef Sidki said delegations from both sides were expected to meet ‘within the next two days’ on prospects of promoting bilateral cooperation.
Sidki said that the move to normalize Egyptian-Syrian ties was partly prompted ‘by developments’ taking place in both Eastern and Western Europe.
Mubarak and Assad agreed in a telephone conversation on Dec. 11 to resume air links between their two countries and Mubarak dispatched his Information Minister Safwat el Sherif to Syria to meet with Assad a week later.
Syria joined with Egypt in Feb. 22, 1958 in the United Arab Republic, but seceded Sept. 30, 1961.
