Syrian FM Arrives on Rare Visit to Saudi Arabia

AlArabiya.net

February 26, 2009

Syria’s Foreign Minister arrived on a rare visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to deliver a message from President Bashar al-Assad to King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported. … Muallem and Faisal were set to discuss ways to bridge bilateral differences, including efforts to reconcile rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.

The trip was a sign of warming relations between the two countries after ties nosedived following the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, a Saudi citizen and prot�g�, in a bombing widely blamed on Syria but denied by Damascus.

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