A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on August 26, 2020 shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meeting with Iraqi national security advisor Faleh al-Fayad in the Syrian capital Damascus. AFP
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday discussed counter-terrorism issues with the visiting Falih al-Fayyadh, the envoy of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi, according to the state news agency SANA.
Al-Fayyadh conveyed to Assad a verbal message from al-Kazemi regarding bolstering the relations between both countries and the coordination in various fields, including the counter-terrorism efforts against the Islamic State (IS) group, said the report.
Both sides stressed that defeating terrorism that has befallen Syria and Iraq could only happen by the hands of the Syrian and Iraqi military forces.
The officials also discussed economic and security challenges facing the region as well as the "foreign schemes" and the cooperation needed to face "the schemes and make them a failure."
This comes as the Syrian army and the IS militants have had several confrontations in the Syrian desert near the Iraqi border over the past few months.
Activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights repeatedly reported clashes between both sides and Russian airstrikes backing the Syrian army in the battles.
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