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Syria has sent its first ambassador to Baghdad in decades, the Iraqi government said on Monday, the latest move from a fellow Arab country to strengthen diplomatic ties with Iraq.
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari received newly appointed Syrian Ambassador Nawaf Aboud al-Sheikh Faris on Monday afternoon, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Zebari "welcomed ambassador Faris and confirmed Iraq's desire to develop and enhance bilateral relations, and to move to a new stage of cooperation," the statement said.
Syria opened an embassy in Baghdad last year, but the arrival of its envoy marks a significant step for the two nations, which have had strained ties since rival factions of the Ba'ath party took power in both countries in the 1960s.
Syria has not had an embassy in Iraq since around the time Saddam Hussein became president in 1979.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq's U.S.-backed government has accused Syria of not doing enough to stem the flow of foreign fighters entering Iraq across the two countries' porous 600-km (380-mile) border.
Several Arab leaders have visited Iraq since August. Last month, the United Arab Emirates ambassador took up his post in Baghdad, becoming the first Arab ambassador in Baghdad since Egypt's envoy was kidnapped and killed in 2005.
PHOTO CAPTION
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (L) talks to the new Syrian ambassador to Iraq Nawaf Fares in Damascus September 16, 2008.
Reuters
