DAMASCUS, Sept 1: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad discussed the “campaign of threats” against Arab and Muslim states here on Sunday with an Iranian envoy carrying a message from Iranian leader Mohammed Khatami.

Mohammed Sadr, Iran’s deputy foreign affairs minister, delivered a message from Khatami “concerning the current situation in the region”, the official news agency SANA reported. The two also “discussed ways to consolidate bilateral relations as well as the current situation on the regional and international scenes and the campaigns of threats and blackmail against Arab and Islamic states,” SANA said.

The meeting was also attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara and the Iranian ambassador to Syria, Hussein Sheikh al-Islam.

An Iranian source in Damascus told AFP that “Assad described the current situation in the region as very sensitive and complicated, and asserted the need to close ranks among Arab and Islamic states in countering the American threats against the region.”

Assad reiterated Syria’s opposition to any potential US attack against Iraq and called for “caution to counter the plots that foreign powers are planning against countries of the region,” said the source, in another veiled jibe to Washington. Sadr had arrived on Saturday in Damascus where he first held talks with Shara, SANA said.

Syria and Iran maintain solid relations and take similar positions on the main problems in the Middle East, specifically in their staunch opposition to Israel.

Both countries are also the main backers of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah which was instrumental in forcing Israel’s troop pullout from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after 22 years of occupation.

On Thursday, a Hezbollah attack injured three Israeli soldiers in the Shebaa Farms, in its most serious operation in four months.—AFP