Iraq & Syria Restore Relations

[Christina]

IRAQ AND SYRIA RESTORE RELATIONSNovember 21, 2006BBC News reports: “Syria and Iraq are to restore diplomatic relations, after a break of more than 20 years.Agreement on restoring all diplomatic ties was announced in Baghdad by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallim.Correspondents say Iraq hopes the move will help to stem a flow of militants across the border with Syria.Relations were severed in 1982, during Saddam Hussein's rule and soon after the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war.Syria and Iraq were governed by competing branches of the pan-Arab Baathist movement, and ties have been largely antagonistic. Mr. Muallim, who has been in Baghdad since Sunday, is the highest-ranking Syrian official to visit Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. The agreement came as US forces launched a raid on Baghdad's Shia district of Sadr City. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday the US was trapped in Iraq and had to find the right time to leave without causing even greater chaos. ‘The US is in a way trapped in Iraq, trapped in the sense that it cannot stay and it cannot leave,’ he said. ‘The timing of its departure will have to be optimal,’…”