Syrian Alliance With Iran Unshakable

From AP, by ALBERT AJI, 14/12/07:

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — President Bashar Assad rejected claims that Syria's alliance with Iran had been weakened by Damascus' participation in last month's U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference, insisting Thursday that ties between the two countries will never be shaken....

....The November conference in Annapolis, Md., which relaunched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, was widely seen as also aimed at isolating Iran by bringing together Arab nations. U.S. officials have expressed hopes that Syria's attendance would mark a start to easing it out of its alliance with Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other top officials denounced the conference, and some officials expressed surprise over Syria's participation — though none directly criticized it....

.....Syria is Iran's closest Arab ally. The two countries have had warm relations since 1980 when Syria sided with Persian Iran against Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.