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Syrian PM To Visit Baghdad To End 20-Year Of Rift
BAGHDAD, May 20 (IslamOnLine & News Agencies) - Iraq and Syria will seal their reconciliation on Monday when Prime Minister (PM) Mohammad Mustafa Miro pays a visit to Baghdad to reopen a diplomatic mission, ending 20 years of bitterness between two Arab states ruled by rival branches of the Baath party.
News of the landmark visit came a day after Damascus opened an interests section in Baghdad and follows a visit to Syria in January by Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
The Syrian PM visit comes as Iraq is seeking the backing of its neighbors to fend off US and British efforts to pressure the Baghdad leadership with a new regime of targeted sanctions.
Miro will be the second top-ranking Arab official to visit Baghdad since the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, following the example of Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb who traveled to Iraq last November.
An Iraqi official, who refused to be named, said that Miro's talks were "particularly important" and would embrace "the strengthening of relations between the two countries in all fields."
The two Arab states, after a longstanding on-off relationship, finally broke off diplomatic ties in 1980 when Damascus backed Tehran in the 1980-1988 war between Iran and Iraq.
The first real improvement took until 1997 when Syria and Iraq reopened their border for businessmen and officials.
Iraq, which has been under a sweeping UN trade embargo since invading Kuwait in 1990, signed a free trade accord with Syria in January during Ramadan's visit, which came into effect on April 1.
Syrian diplomat Mohammad Hassan Tawab opened Saturday the interests section in Baghdad that would operate under the Algerian flag, at the Algerian embassy with the title of charge d'affaires.
Iraq opened an interests section in the Syrian capital more than a year earlier, in March 2000, which also works under the Algerian flag.
Over the past four years, Syrian and Iraqi government officials have stepped up visits to each other's capital and Damascus has started to send flights to Baghdad despite a UN air traffic embargo.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on February 28 underlined the need "to lift the embargo imposed on the Iraqi people" and the Baath party in Damascus has called for "joint Arab action" against the sanctions.
With the embargo now under review, Iraq has warned its neighbors, on whose support the United States is counting to implement "smart" sanctions, that they would lose billions of dollars in trade if they fell in line with Washington as Iraq will reject such proposals for "smart" sanctions", news agencies reported.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz also said last week that Iraq would cut its oil exports to its neighbors -Jordan, Syria and Turkey - in retaliation, which would be "immediate".
Syria, which has embarked on economic reforms, is counting on the Iraqi market and its potential thanks to the country's massive oil wealth, second only to Saudi Arabia in reserves, Western news agencies said.
Smart sanctions would end the UN embargo on trade with Baghdad for all non-military goods.
But US and British proposals expected to be discussed in the UN Security Council this week also aim to halt Iraqi oil exports to neighbors outside the confines of a UN oil-for-food program, according to diplomats in New York.
Iraq insists on its right to obtain a total lifting of the embargo without new commitments and asks for halting the aggression on its people.
Iraq's Minister of Health Omeid Medhat Mubarak criticized the continuation of the blanket embargo for 11 years that has affected the implementation of health plans and programs as well as being negatively reflected on the Iraqi society, the Iraqi News Agency reported Saturday on its web site.
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