DAMASCUS, 24 August 2004 — Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal Al-Fayez yesterday rounded off a three-day visit to Syria by meeting Syrian President Bashar Assad for talks on “ways to consolidate economic and social relations” between their two countries, the official news agency SANA reported yesterday.
On Sunday, a group of Jordanian government ministers who accompanied Fayez on his official visit, held talks with their Syrian counterparts on cooperation in the fields of commerce, finance, customs, industry and irrigation. Interior Ministers Ali Hammud of Syria and Jordan’s Samir Habashneh discussed security on their common border and Syrian TV indicated they had agreed to “surmount everything that impedes cooperation and coordination”.
Recent events have put a strain on bilateral relations, particularly the arrest by Syrian border police of five Jordanian lorry drivers carrying Israeli goods to Iraq.
Meanwhile, a Libyan woman has given birth to septuplets, five boys and two girls, their Jordanian doctor said yesterday. “This is a very rare case and the first in Jordan,” Dr. Jamil Shaaban was quoted as saying by state-run Petra news agency.
The septuplets were born Sunday after a 27-week pregnancy and weighed between 1.1 kilograms (2.4 pounds) and 750 grams (26 ounces), he said. “We were hopeful that she could give birth during her 29th week, which we considered a good transitional period to overcome any danger but she gave birth yesterday during her 28th week,” he said.
Both mother and babies are in “good health”, he said, although the babies were being assisted with their breathing. The mother, Ibtissam Al-Thaeb, an industrial engineer, underwent fertility treatment in Egypt. A Palestinian woman gave birth to septuplets in an East Jerusalem hospital in June, but all of them died within days. Very few cases of septuplets surviving birth are documented.
