Jordan's foreign minister visits Damascus

Yesterday, the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ayman Safadi, visited Syria, during which he met Bashar al-Assad and a number of Syrian officials, in order to discuss the initiative to solve the Syrian crisis and the file of Arab relations, in addition to the bilateral relations.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, "The meeting with President al-Assad dealt with issues related to bilateral relations and the broader effort to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis that ends this disaster, addresses all its humanitarian, security and political consequences, guarantees Syria's unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty, fulfills the aspirations of the Syrian people, rids them of terrorism, and creates conditions that allow the voluntary return of Syrian refugees".

Safadi acknowledged during the press conference that there are great difficulties facing efforts to reach a political solution to the crisis: "But we realize the inevitability of this effort, because resolving the Syrian crisis is a basic interest for Syria, and an interest for us in the region and an interest for the world as well, because the consequences of this crisis was reflected on all of us".

The Jordanian Foreign Minister pointed out that: "The Syrian crisis had many consequences, and all issues will not be resolved overnight, but we started a serious Arab path aimed at resolving the Syrian crisis according to an initiative that we had put forward and it is based on the principle of step by step, and is in accordance with UN Resolution 2254".

In turn, Faysal al-Miqdad said, in a press conference after the meeting, that: "This visit began with a meeting with President al-Assad, and the most important issues discussed were the situation in Syria and the developments that took place after the recent Arab summit and the bilateral relations between the two countries," according to Al-Watan newspaper.

Al-Miqdad continued, "We found it useful to have deep bilateral coordination, especially before the next meeting of the follow-up committee that was formed at the last Arab summit, so that we are ready to come up with unified visions that reflect an Arab position in order to solve the problems we face in Syria and in the region in general".

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt had met in Amman in early May and announced that they were working on implementing an Arab initiative to solve the Syrian crisis based on the principle of step by step.

Sh-S

ANHA