Iran, Syria again highlight their relations

NICOSIA -- Syria has used the halt in negotiations with Israel to highlight Damascus's relations with Iran.

After several months of maintaining a low profile, Syria has again embraced Iran, regarded as the leading ally of Damascus. Iran has opposed any Syrian peace treaty with Israel but has not criticized the negotiations. The negotiations led to a chill in relations as Teheran waited to determine the outcome of the efforts by Damascus to achieve a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

But the suspension of Israeli-Syrian negotiations has brought to the fore ties between Damascus and Teheran. In interviews with Iranian publications, Syrian officials have again touted these ties as strategic.

On Tuesday, deputy Prime Minister Salim Yassin termed his country's relations with Teheran as strategic and dismissed any prospect of a downgrade. "No one can mar these relations," Yassin told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Syrian Finance Minister Khaled Mahayni said his country is prepared to expand the range of its relations with Iran, including those in the fields of economy commerce, and culture. Mahayni said bilateral relations are steadily increasing over the last year.

In Moscow, deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Sadeq Kharazi met with Russian officials and termed relations between Moscow and Teheran as constructive and fruitful. Kharazi expressed optimism that such ties would improve and ruled out U.S. pressure to suspend these relations.