Neighbouring Syria and Iraq will reinstate ambassadors in each other's countries, part of a renewed effort to improve bilateral relations after a political war of words led to a tense fallout between the two countries last year.
According to Syrian political figures on Saturday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebarmet met with his Syrian counterpart, Walid al- Muallam, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York this week.
The sources said that the two nations were turning over a new page. The announcement that Syria would welcome an exchange of ambassadors came less than a week after Iraq said it signed an agreement with Damascus to build two crude oil pipelines to the Mediterranean Sea. The rebuilding of full diplomatic ties comes just over a year after Iraq withdrew its ambassador from Syria, following the reinstatement of ambassadors in 2006.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government accused Syria of harbouring terrorists and allowing them to easily infiltrate his country. He said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government was providing refuge to militants involved in two Baghdad bombings that killed nearly 100 people and injured several hundreds more.