AFP: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was to arrive in Tehran Monday for talks with top officials, a day after the Iranian national security chief visited Damascus, the state news agency IRNA reported. TEHRAN, Jan 22, 2007 (AFP) – Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was to arrive in Tehran Monday for talks with top officials, a day after the Iranian national security chief visited Damascus, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Muallem was to discuss bilateral and regional issues with Iranian officials and give a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.
On Sunday Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and head of the Supreme National Security Council, delivered a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
According to the Syrian media the message focused on “the situation in the region and issues of common concern”.
Larijani also met Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, addressing the latest developments in the Palestinian territories, especially the formation of the government of national unity, IRNA said.
Both Iran and Syria are accused by the West of working to destabilise the Middle East by actively supporting the Shiite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and the ruling Islamist Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
The two states are also accused of aiding the insurgency against US-led forces that invaded Iraq in March 2003, a charge vehemently denied by Tehran.
