August 27, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 17,1423

JEDDAH, Aug 26: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah warned on Monday that launching war on Iraq would destabilize the region and lead to a human tragedy, the SPA news agency said.

The warning came in talks held in Jeddah during a brief visit by President Assad to the kingdom.

Assad and Prince Abdullah reviewed “developments in the (Gulf) region which may lead to undesirable results, destabilize peace and security in the region and the world and produce human tragedies,” SPA said, in reference to US threats to wage war on Iraq.

They also discussed the situation in the Palestinian territories and efforts to reach a “just settlement” with Israel.

The Syrian leader was accompanied by Vice President Abdulhalim Khaddam and Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara, who visited Saudi Arabia just last week to express Damascus’s support in the face of continued criticism in the United States of the role of Saudi nationals in the Sept 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Saudi ambassador to Syria, Bakr bin Bakr, said in a statement carried by SPA that the “two countries stand against wars and destruction, and back political and diplomatic solutions, and totally reject interfering in the internal affairs of any country.”

Last week the Saudi cabinet warned of a human tragedy if war was launched against Baghdad and urged that diplomacy should be given enough time to resolve the crisis. —AFP