Syrian president aims to boost ties with Iraq

Khaleej times ^ | July 16, 2002 | AFP

[stilts]

DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said he aimed to boost ties with Iraq, in a message to Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein on the 34th anniversary of a coup that brought his Baath party to power in Baghdad.

"The strengthening of brotherly ties will continue in the interests of the two countries and to defend the just causes of the Arab world," he said in the message, quoted by the official news agency SANA. Assad expressed his "best wishes to President Saddam Hussein and the brotherly Iraqi people".

Relations between Iraq and Syria, which are ruled by rival wings of the Baath party and severed ties in the 1980s, have been on the mend since 1997, fueled mainly by trade links. - AFP

[stilts]

This makes things easier. Kill two birds with one stone.

Relations between Iraq and Syria, which are ruled by rival wings of the Baath party and severed ties in the 1980s, have been on the mend since 1997, fueled mainly by trade links.

"Trade links"!?! It's an easy bet that the trade ini question is arms trade

[Paleo Conservative]

Possibly the biggest mistake made by a dictator since Mussolini invaded France just before the French surrender to the Germans in June 1940.