Syria names ambassador to Iraq
DAMASCUS (Agencies)
Syria named its first ambassador to Iraq since the 1980s on Tuesday, two years after the two countries restored diplomatic ties, according to the state-run news agency.
SANA said Nawaf Fares, a ruling party apparatchik, took the oath as ambassador to Baghdad in front of President Bashar al-Assad.
Iraq has not yet named an ambassador to Damascus. Syria and Iraq restored diplomatic relations in November 2006, ending a 24-year break that followed charges by the Damascus government that Iraq incited riots in Syria in 1982 by members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
But relations between Syria and neighboring Iraq remain tense, with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government accusing Syria of allowing anti-U.S rebels to infiltrate the borders.
Iraqi officials have made it clear that there will be no progress on economic cooperation, including an oil pipeline, unless Syria shows what Baghdad describes as seriousness in stopping the alleged infiltration.
Several Arab governments named ambassadors to Iraq recently after the United States criticized them for acting slowly on normalizing relations with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have all named ambassadors in the past month. But because of security concerns, the only Arab ambassador actually posted in Baghdad is the Emirati.