By Xinhua,
Damascus : Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is scheduled to pay a visit to neighboring Turkey on Tuesday to discuss with the Turkish leadership the indirect peace talks with Israel mediated by Turkey, the independent Syria-news website reported.
Current situation in the region and means to boost Syrian-Turkish bilateral relations would also be discussed during Assad’s meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Aegean resort town of Bodrum, said the report.
The official SANA news agency also confirmed the President’s visit, saying Assad and his wife would visit Turkey at the invitation of Erdogan and his wife.
SANA, meanwhile, denied some Turkish media reports that Assad was to spend a family holiday in Turkey.
The visit comes two days after Assad’s trip to Tehran, where he held talks with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Iran ‘s nuclear file. It also comes days before a scheduled visit to Turkey by Ahmadinejad next week on Iran’s nuclear program.
Syria and Israel have conducted four rounds of indirect peace talks under the mediation of Turkey and the fifth is due this month.
Negotiations between Syria and Israel foundered in 2000 largely over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel seized in 1967 and annexed in 1981.