French President Nicolas Sarkozy started on Wednesday a two-day official visit to Syria in efforts to push forward peace in the region and boost bilateral ties between the two countries.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad held talks with Sarkozy after an official welcoming ceremony, during which the two leaders discussed situations in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinians territories, according to the official SANA news agency.
Efforts to establish peace in the region and improve bilateral ties in all fields, were also discussed, SANA said.
Assad hailed at a joint press conference with Sarkozy afterwards that their talks were "frank and constructive," saying "the main point of our talks today was the stability in the Middle East, and subsequently the peace process and the indirect talks underway between Syria and Israel in Turkey."
"We have made an assessment of the stage the negotiations have reached and the future horizons of this process and the French role which we talked about during my visit to Paris nearly two months ago," Assad continued.
Answering a question on the start of direct peace talks with Israel, Assad stressed that there should first be confidence-building among the parties and the basis and terms of references.
"After that we can move on to the direct negotiations, which requires the U.S. and other parties," added Assad.
For his part, Sarkozy said France supports the indirect peace negotiations under Turkish mediation, stressing his country's readiness to be one of the sponsors of this process when it is time to do so.
"We are building our relations with President Bashar al-Assad step by step ... and we want to be relations of confidence," noted Sarkozy.
Meanwhile, Assad hailed France's role in the region, saying "France has a special status in the Arab world and we in Syria are content over the efforts by Sarkozy to strengthen the relations between France and the Arab world on the basis of mutual respect, joint interests and constant, continuous dialogue."
