TEHRAN, 17 March 2003 — Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad joined with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Khatami yesterday in opposing US-led war threats against their common neighbor Iraq as he made an unannounced visit to Tehran.
The two heads of state called on “US leaders to hear the demands of world public opinion and replace the language of force with that of reason,” the official IRNA news agency said. They demanded that “the territorial integrity of Iraq be maintained” and warned Washington that “democracy cannot be imposed”.
“It is the Iraqi nation that must determine its own destiny with the participation of all of its ethnic groups and communities,” the two leaders said in reference to US plans to impose a military administration after any invasion.
Assad, who was making his second visit here in a year, had gone straight into talks with Khatami after a brief photocall following his arrival.
A previous planned visit here in mid-January was canceled. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi visited Damascus in December.
Syria was one of the few Arab states to side with Iran in its bloody 1980-88 war with Iraq, but has patched up relations with the Baghdad regime in recent years.
As the sole Arab member of the UN Security Council, it supported the tough new disarmament regime established for Iraq last year but has since spoken out strongly against US-led war threats.
Assad’s visit to Tehran came just hours before US President George W. Bush was due to hold a key summit in the Azores with his main European allies, prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain and Jose Maria Aznar of Spain.
