Syria, Iraq discuss security ahead of border group talks
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari on Wednesday discussed the next meeting of a US-supported commission on security in Iraq, due to convene later this month in Damascus.
"We discussed with Mr Zebari the meeting of the enlarged commission on security on November 22," Muallem told a joint news conference, referring to the Iraqi Neighbours Border Security Working Group.
The meeting would come less than a month after an October 26 attack by helicopter-borne American soldiers, which Damascus said left eight people dead in a Syrian village near the border.
An official in Washington said the raid had targeted a "facilitator" of foreign fighters crossing the border from Syria to battle US and Iraqi forces.
The United States regularly accuses both Syria and Iraq's eastern neighbour Iran of fanning the violence and not doing enough to prevent the infiltration of insurgents across their borders.
The meeting of the security working group would be the third annual gathering in Syria since it was established in 2006.
Delegates to the talks include senior officials from the foreign or interior ministries of nations neighbouring Iraq, officials from Egypt and representatives of UN Security Council members, including the United States.
During his trip to Syria, Zebari repeated Baghdad's denunciation of the US raid, saying it harmed relations between the neighbours.
"The Iraqi government rejects the American raid launched on Syrian territory. We were not informed about it, and we have asked that there be no repetition (of such attacks), which harm our relations with Syria," he said after meeting President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.
Zebari reiterated his remarks during the news conference with Muallem.