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Syria's Assad Greeted By Khatami On First Day Of Iran Visit
TEHRAN, Jan 24 (News Agencies) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was greeted here by President Mohammad Khatami Wednesday after arriving on his first visit to close regional ally Iran since taking office last July, officials said.
Assad, who has made only a handful of trips abroad since succeeding his late father, Hafez, is also to meet with Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his two-day visit.
The Syrian president was received by Khatami at the former imperial palace of Saad Abad. Because of heavy snowfall, the ceremony had to be held inside rather than in the courtyard, as is customary.
A first round of political talks is set to take place during the evening, with Assad meeting Khamenei on Thursday morning.
Later Thursday, Assad is expected to lay a wreath at the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Islamic Iran.
Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam and Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara accompanied Assad.
Speaking ahead of the first Assad-Khatami meeting, Syrian presidential spokesman Gebran Kurieh said friendship between the two countries would benefit not only them, but also "equally all peoples of the region and the entire Islamic world."
The purpose of his visit will be to "give a new boost to its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and [Assad] will spare no efforts to strengthen relations between the Arabs and Iran," the Syrian ruling party daily al-Baath said in Damascus Wednesday.
Syria's ambassador to Tehran, Ahmad al-Hassan said talks would focus on "reinforcing political relations," and that these "links will be confirmed in the current regional context."
Concretely, Hassan said coordination of the two countries' respective positions on the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israel will be "at the heart of the talks."
A shared hardline stance on Israel, including joint support for Hezbollah, who helped eject Israeli troops from south Lebanon last year, has made the two nations key political allies in the turbulent Middle East.
Iran, which strongly opposes the Middle East peace process, has refrained from directly criticizing Damascus for its on-again, off-again negotiations with the Jewish state.
"The solid nature of Syrian-Iranian relations is a force for the Arabs and a support for their principal cause, the recovery of occupied territories and usurped rights from the Israeli racist aggressors and the liberation of Jerusalem," al-Baath said.
Arab diplomatic sources said Assad, who was in the United Arab Emirates Sunday, could also try to mediate a long-running dispute between Abu Dhabi and Tehran over three Gulf islands claimed by both.
Commenting on that, Kurieh said "there is no problem that cannot be studied, but no one has said up until now that Syria plays a role in mediating between Tehran and Abu Dhabi."
The two sides are also expected to discuss the issue of Lebanon, where Syria's ultimate control - assisted by more than 30,000 troops on the ground - has come under growing fire within Lebanese political circles.
Khatami said earlier this month, during a visit by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, that close cooperation among Iran, Syria and Lebanon was "the precondition for stability" in the region.
Economic ties between the two countries have been limited to only about $20 million annually.
Syria and Iran have also expressed support for an end to the embargo on Iraq.
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