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Iraqi Vice-President Visits Damascus To Strengthen Relations
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In order to strengthen ties between Syria and Iraq, Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraqi vice-president, arrived in Damascus Monday with high expectations that he would sign Iraq's second free-trade deal of the month.
Iraq who signed a free trade deal with Egypt earlier this month, expects other Arab states to follow Egypt and Syria's lead.
Syrian and Iraqi relations broke off 17 years ago when Syria supported Iran in its war against Iraq. But relations between them have been improving steadily in the past several years.
The deal might lead to a three-way free trade area between Iraq, Egypt and Syria, according to a senior member of the chamber of commerce in Damascus.
Although the agreements at the moment do not appear to offer much economic advantage, they might have an impact on Iraq's growing private sector, which is bypassing the U.N. embargo and importing goods.
Mohamed Mehdi Saleh, the Iraqi trade minister said recently that the free trade deal's greater goal was to establish a common Arab market.
In addition, talks between Iraqi Irrigation Minister Mahmud Diab al-Ahmad and his Syrian
counterpart, Taha al-Atrash, opened on Sunday in Baghdad on arrangements to share water from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
Talks between the two countries irrigation ministers came on the eve of the Iraqi vice-president's visit to Damascus, considered as the highest-level visit since the process of strengthening relations between the two countries initiated.
Iraq and Syria have also found common ground with Turkey over the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and reviewed results of meetings held between them and Turkey on the issue of sharing Euphrates waters.
Ankara, which has exploited the Euphrates for hydroelectric power for years and has plans to do the same to the Tigris, has, as a result, reduced the water supply downstream to Iraq and Syria.
Baghdad and Damascus have charged Ankara with monopolizing the Euphrates and Tigris by building more than 20 dams, but Ankara rejects the charges.
The Tigris-Euphrates river system is identified as an area of possible future international conflict.
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