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CAIRO (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, making his first trip abroad, arrived Sunday for talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak concerning the deadlocked Arab-Israeli peace process. Assad, 34, who succeeded his late father Hafez al-Assad in July, was greeted by Mubarak at Cairo International Airport, airport sources said. The two leaders immediately traveled to the Egyptian presidential palace in northern Cairo where state television showed a military honor guard greeting them. Egyptian government newspapers said earlier that the summit would focus on the stalled Syrian-Israeli peace talks, the future of Jerusalem, and efforts to organize an Arab summit. The Al-Akhbar daily said the question of restarting the Syrian-Israeli talks, suspended in January, will probably top the agenda. "The Syrian-Egyptian summit will again demonstrate to Israel and others Egypt's total support for Syria," it added. Mubarak has "repeated several times that Syria could not give up one inch of its territory." The sticky point is the future of the strategic Golan Heights, which overlooks the Sea of Galilee, and northeastern Israel - both of which were captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Syria demands that Israel return all of the land captured in the June 1967 seizure, which would give Damascus access to the fresh water Sea of Galilee. Israel has expressed a willingness to return the Golan, but wants to withdraw only to a 1923 border, which would allow it to keep the Sea of Galilee in its entirety. The government newspaper Al-Gomhoriya added that the two leaders would also discuss the "future of Jerusalem, the holy city embroiled in clashes in which dozens of Palestinian victims fell" on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Palestinian death toll over the past three days has climbed to 29, with more than 700 wounded, while the Israeli army said at least 15 soldiers have been injured. The clashes erupted after a right-wing Israeli delegation on Thursday visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, whose status is the main stumbling block in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and a key issue for all Muslims. |
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