Al-Assad met Saturday for nearly 45 minutes with Cuba Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who traveled to Syria to attend the 20th Arab League Summit on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The statesman expressed gratitude for Cuba"s historic solidarity with Syria and the cause of the Arab peoples, while praised the Caribbean nation"s performance as the current NAM leader.

Al-Assad stressed the need of speeding up bilateral cooperation in the scientific field and, mainly in the production of medicines and bio-technologic products.

The Syrian president also praised the island"s advances in health and its unconditional support to other nations in that field.

Perez Roque, who concluded his two-day visit to Damascus, also met with Palestine National Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of Qatar.

The Cuban minister told Prensa Latina he had delivered a letter from Cuban President Raul Castro to the top authority of that Arab-Persian Gulf emirate.

Perez Roque"s agenda here also included meetings with Bahrain"s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al- Khalifa, Iran"s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal.

The Cuban foreign minister reiterated the demand to Israel to unconditionally withdraw from the occupied territories as a result of the 1967 war, and informed Arab leaders the renewed Cuba-led NAM activism of solidarity and support to the Arab cause.

Perez Roque spoke in the segment of the Arab League summit yesterday, on behalf of the NAM presidency, and rejected Islam phobia against Muslim countries, while exhorted the Arab community to work for unity.

(Adelante.cu)