Syria opposes attempts by the United States and Britain to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Syrian Vice-President Abdul-Halim Khaddam said Thursday.
Such moves would ``serve Israel's design to disintegrate the Arab and Islamic world,'' Khaddam said after receiving his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Habibi, at Damascus airport.
The United States has granted dlrs 97 million to Iraqi opposition groups. British and American officials hosted meetings in London last month of 16 Iraqi dissident groups in a bid to promote cooperation among them.
``This is a very dangerous issue ... No state in the world has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of any other country,'' Khaddam said.
Habibi said the Iraqi and Palestinian questions were of great concern to Iran and Syria: ``There should be coordination between the two countries over these issues.''
The official Iranian news agency, IRMA, said the Iraqi and Palestinian issues would be the focus of talks between Habibi and Khaddam at the meeting of the Syrian-Iranian Supreme Committee. The committee meets biannually to promote cooperation in foreign affairs, trade and technology.
Habibi, who is accompanied by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, is expected to meet Syrian President Hafez Assad during his three-day visit.
Syria is Iran's closest Arab ally and supported the Persian state during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. str-bm-jbm