ARAB-AFFAIRS - July 19 - Syria And Jordan Boost Ties.

Officials say Syrian Pres. Bashar Al Assad and Jordan's King Abdullah agreed during a meeting in Damascus to revive a joint economic commission and boost commercial exchanges. They say Bashar had agreed to provide Jordan with water to help it tackle the consequences of a regional drought. They do not specify any quantity and say this would be agreed by the respective water authorities. (Syria has several dams close to the border with Jordan. Relations worsened after Jordan's late King Hussein signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994. But they started to improve again when the late Syrian president, Hafez Al Assad, attended King Hussein's funeral in Amman in 1999 and began to develop a good relationship with his son, who has visited Damascus several times.) A Syrian spokesman says Abdullah and Bashar had held 2 rounds of talks, one of them in private. He says they discussed not only Arab and regional issues but also economic cooperation. In a message after leaving Damascus, Abdullah tells Bashar Al Assad: "Your brothers in Jordan look to you with great hope and optimism. We want to achieve the highest level of cooperation between our countries for the benefit of our people," adding: "Your determination to realise the aspirations of the Syrian people for progress and development is greatly appreciated by us. We affirm our full support for you in your efforts to achieve progress and prosperity for the Syrian people". Diplomats say the talks had also covered the stalled Syrian-Israeli peace process. (Abdullah, whose country also maintains ties with the US, helped in the resumption of the Syrian-Israeli talks in December. The negotiations broke off again in early January after failing to register any progress on the fate of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel from Syria in 1967.) The Jordanian monarch is the 2nd Arab leader, after Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, to be received officially in Syria since Pres. Bashar Al Assad took the oath of office on July 17.