After Syria, Ahmadinejad will head to Algeria followed by New York (File)
DAMASCUS/TEHRAN (Agencies)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Saturday, his first stop in a three-nation trip which includes the United States where he is to attend next week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, state media said.
After Syria, Ahmadinejad will head to Algeria followed by New York.
The official Syrian news agency did not give any details of the meeting between Ahmadinejad and Assad but the visit comes two days after the Syrian president held talks with a U.S. envoy about the prospects of renewing peace negotiations with Israel.
The Iranian nation has meticulous methods and divine values to offer to the world since materialistic thoughts have reached a complete defeat, which is why there is no clear outlook for the sustainable peace and welfare of the world
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The United States started a rapprochement with Syria soon after U.S. President Barack Obama took office last year.
Speaking to reporters before departing Tehran, the hardliner said that apart from attending the U.N. session, he would hold a series of meetings in the United States.
“In New York, I will talk to heads of governments, a group of American people, industrialists, thinkers, politicians and decision-makers, have a dialogue with one of the American universities, and talk to the media,” state media quoted him as saying.
Criticizing the West for “failing to solve world issues,” Ahmadinejad said Iran has “clear and productive principles” on the way the world should be run.
“The Iranian nation has meticulous methods and divine values to offer to the world since materialistic thoughts have reached a complete defeat, which is why there is no clear outlook for the sustainable peace and welfare of the world.”
Ahmadinejad said Iran’s relations with Syria were “solid and strategic with a unified view on all issues,” adding the Islamic republic’s ties with Algeria were also “very good and expanding.”
Ahmadinejad last paid a visit to Syria in February, soon after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underlined Washington’s desire to see Syria move away from Iran.
At the time, Ahmadinejad and Assad signed a visa-scrapping accord that signaled closer ties between the regional allies.
Ahmadinejad visited Algiers in January 2009, were he held talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
From Monday to Wednesday, he will attend the U.N. General Assembly, a forum he has used in past years to blast arch-foe Israel.
Ahmadinejad hopeful US will release Iranians
Ahmadinejad is hopeful the United States will release several Iranians it is holding now that Tehran has freed an American jailed for more than a year and accused of spying.
Before setting off for a trip to the U.N. General Assembly, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the release of the Iranians would be an appropriate moral gesture by Washington.
“We are hopeful the Iranians there will be released and reunited with their families,” he said in a state TV interview broadcast Friday night.
American Sarah Shourd was released Tuesday after more than 13 months in prison in what Iranian officials have described as a humanitarian gesture because she is said to be in ill health. Two other Americans with whom she was arrested last year — Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — are still being held in a Tehran prison on espionage charges.
Ahmadinejad has suggested several times in the past that the three could be traded for Iranians held in the U.S. In December, Iran released a list of 11 Iranians it says are in U.S. custody.
One of them, nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, returned to Iran in July. Iran said he had been kidnapped during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and taken to the United States. Washington said he was a willing defector who later changed his mind and was allowed to return home.
Iran’s president said the U.S. should now release the others.
“From a moral viewpoint, there is an expectation that the U.S. takes a step,” Ahmadinejad said. “There is an expectation in public opinion to release some of them.”
Speaking of Shourd’s release, he said, “We hope they appreciate this job.”
Iranian officials have said the Ahmadinejad personally intervened to get Shourd released on medical grounds. Her mother has said the 32-year-old Shourd has a lump on her breast and precancerous cervical cells.
The three Americans were detained along Iran’s border with Iraq in July 2009 and later accused of spying. Their families say the Americans were innocent hikers in the scenic mountains of Iraq’s Kurdish region and if they did stray across the border into Iran, they did so unwittingly.
The Gulf sultanate of Oman played a key role in helping mediate the release of Shourd, who left Tehran Tuesday and flew to Oman’s capital, Muscat, where she reunited with her mother.
A relative says they plan to travel to New York on Saturday, and family spokeswoman Samantha Topping said Shourd and her mother will speak to reporters during a news conference Sunday at a New York hotel.
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