Jordan Times
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Syria frees 18 Jordanian
prisoners
AMMAN (JT) - Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Nasser Judeh
announced on Wednesday that the government today will receive 18 Jordanian
citizens freed from Syrian prisons.
According to Judeh, the Syrian move comes in fulfilment of President Bashar
Assad’s directives and the outcome of talks His Majesty King Abdullah held with
Assad during his recent visit to Syria. Officials then said that President
Assad, responding to a request by the King, instructed authorities to take
immediate measures to free an unspecified number of Jordanian prisoners.
Judeh pointed out that a committee including members from the two sides is
following up on the issue of the remaining prisoners in the two countries, in
order to resolve it completely.
The King on November 18 held a landmark summit with President Assad, which was
followed by at least two phone calls between the two leaders.
In Damascus, the two leaders stressed their keenness to arrive at solutions to
all outstanding issues between the two countries “once and for all”. According
to a joint statement issued following the King-Assad encounter, “the summit came
as part of both leaders' determination to strengthen and deepen cooperation
between the two brotherly countries in all fields, and to reach practical and
concrete solutions to various key bilateral issues”.
Several agreements between the two sides were marked for signature during the
next meeting of the Joint Jordanian-Syrian Higher Committee.
The joint committee's meeting was supposed to be held on October 25 in Amman,
but was postponed. The two sides are expected to sit together to conclude the
deals before the New Year.