SYRIA, ARMENIA HOLD BILATERAL TALKS
United Press International
June 3 2009
Armenian and Syrian officials met in Yerevan to discuss bilateral
relations and the regional diplomatic situation, a government news
agency reports.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem met with Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan to discuss political solutions to regional issues
facing both countries, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reports.
Damascus hopes to strengthen its regional position in the
community. Washington has dispatched top diplomats to Damascus in
the hopes of reaching a variety of agreements with Syrian officials
on issues ranging from Lebanon to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Syria has also signed a series of energy agreements with neighboring
Iraq and Iran with the hopes of securing export potential in ports
in the Mediterranean Sea.
Moallem said Damascus and Yerevan shared nearly identical viewpoints
on regional issues.
Armenia, for its part, is wrestling with its own regional complications
over Nagorno-Karabakh.
War broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh
in the early 1990s, and the regional fallout from that row remains
tense despite a 1994 cease-fire.
In related developments, Syrian President Bashar Assad in his third
round of Cabinet shake-ups appointed Lt. Gen. Tourkmani as his
assistant vice president and Lt. Gen. Ali Habib Mahmoud as his next
minister of defense.
Assad appointed new Cabinet officials at the ministries of Justice,
Interior, Health, Local Administration and Presidential Affairs in
addition and created a new environmental position on April 24.