ANKARA, Turkey, July 15 (UPI) — Turkey will sell 35 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 400 megawatts of electricity to Syria within the next five years, officials said. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz met with his Syrian counterpart Sufian al-Alou in Ankara to discuss bilateral economic relations. Syria is pushing to broaden its regional energy relations with its neighbors. Iran in May signed a memorandum of understanding in Baghdad with Iraq and Turkey to link power and energy networks with Syria. Damascus sees its energy relationship with its neighbors as a potential source of economic recovery as Syria struggles with falling oil revenue and a stagnant market. Yildiz said Turkey would transfer about 35 billion cubic feet of gas to Syria within the next five years as regional gas pipelines come online, Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reports. Alou said his country has the capacity to meet about 85 percent of its own gas demands, leaving it dependent on imports to meet the shortfall. The Syrian energy minister said the agreement would strengthen bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries. “We hope the agreements on gas and electricity sales will give a momentum to the improvement of mutual relations with Turkey,” he said.

Beirut, (SANA) – Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said on Monday that Lebanese-Syrian relations are witnessing mutual trust bolstered by carrying out the steps that were included in the joint statement issued after the Syrian-Lebanese Summit which was held in Damascus in August 2008.

President Suleiman stressed that the higher interests of the two countries govern the carrying out of the articles of the joint statement.

He pointed out that any Arab or international efforts for achieving just and comprehensive peace must be based on agreement with Syria and bolstering Arab solidarity on the basis of the reconciliations that were made during the last Arab Summit, calling on for expanding the reconciliations and uniting Arab stances to confront challenges and pressures.

President Suleiman noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of Defense Ehud Barak continue to launch threats at Lebanon and are working to undermine its internal stability through espionage and violations of its skies and sea.

He stressed that Israel uses threats and tension in order to escape from the international pressure placed on it to stop the building of settlements and adhere to the requirements of just and comprehensive peace

AP -BEIRUT – Syria’s leader sent a July 4 message full of praise to President Barack Obama on Friday and invited him to visit Syria — the latest signs Damascus is hedging its bets in Mideast politics, warming up to its rival the United States at a time when its longtime ally Iran is in turmoil.

The United States and its Arab allies have been hoping to pull Syria out of the fold of Iran and Islamic militant groups in the region.

Damascus so far appears unlikely to take such a dramatic step, but it does appear worried about Iran’s reliability and the long-term impact of that country’s postelection unrest. Also, its Lebanese ally Hezbollah suffered a setback when its coalition failed to win June parliament elections, beaten out by a pro-U.S. bloc.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has been expressing hopes for better ties with Washington for months. But the latest developments may make dialogue look even more attractive.

Assad sent a telegram to Obama on the occasion of the July 4 Independence Day holiday, saying, “The values that were adopted by President Obama during his election campaign and after he was elected president are values that the world needs today.”

“It is very important to adopt the principle of dialogue in relations with countries based on respect and mutual interest,” Assad said in the telegram, which was carried by state-run news agency SANA.

In an interview with Britain’s Sky News, Assad invited Obama to visit Damascus to discuss Mideast peace.

“We would like to welcome him in Syria, definitely. I am very clear about this,” Assad said in English. Asked whether such a visit could take place soon, Assad said: “That depends on him.”

He added with a smile, “I will ask you to convey the invitation to him.” The last time a U.S. president visited Syria was a 1994 trip by Bill Clinton.

For the U.S., even pulling Syria only partly away from Iran and its militant allies would represent a major shift and could help ease Mideast crises. The U.S.-Syrian rivalry has fueled instability in Lebanon, and the U.S. and Israel say Syria’s backing of the Palestinian Hamas undermines the Arab-Israeli peace process. Syrian cooperation could make Obama’s fresh push for a peace deal take off.

The Obama administration has stepped up its wooing of Syria. The U.S. is sending back its ambassador to Damascus after a four-year break over terrorism accusations. Obama’s special Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, became the highest-level U.S. administration official to visit Damascus since 2005, and he acknowledged Syria’s clout, declaring Damascus has a key role to play in forging Mideast peace.

In a separate interview with Sky News, Assad’s wife, Asma, said she believed the Syrian and American leaders could work together.

“The fact that President Obama is young — well President Assad is also very young as well — so maybe it is time for these young new leaders to make a difference in the world,” she said.

In one sign of Syrian cooperation on regional issues, Damascus is believed to have played a behind-the-scenes role in ensuring Lebanon’s elections remained peaceful.

Damascus likely won’t move away from its Iran alliance easily. Iran’s regional clout has been key to boosting Syria’s status in the Middle East, and Tehran gives considerable financial and military backing. Assad was the first Arab leader to congratulate Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning the disputed presidential election.

But Iran is now mired in the fallout from that election, following the widespread protests that erupted amid claims Ahmadinejad’s victory in the June election was fraudulent. A heavy crackdown has largely quelled the protests, but the show of anger has raised questions over Ahmadinejad’s long-term legitimacy.

“All the world around Syria on which it built its policy is falling apart,” said Sateh Noureddine, managing editor of the Lebanese As-Safir daily, which tilts toward Syria’s Lebanese allies.

“Hezbollah lost the election in Lebanon, Hamas is being subjected to unprecedented attrition and Iran is drowned in its internal crises,” he told The Associated Press. “All the elements of strength they (Syrians) built on their foreign policy are collapsing, so for certain they are going to reassess and look for alternatives, without abandoning their past.”

Writing in the Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat, Saudi analyst Dawood al-Shirian urged Syria to “take this opportunity and rid itself of having to pay a price for the Iranians’ reputation.”

U.S. ally Saudi Arabia — one of the bitterest rivals of Syria in the region since 2005 — has been working in recent months to thaw ties with Damascus in hopes of drawing it away from Iran.

The oil powerhouse sent a senior envoy to Damascus on June 28. Assad and Saudi King Abdullah have twice met in recent months in Riyadh and Kuwait, and there has been persistent media speculation that Abdullah will visit Damascus in July — perhaps as early as next week — to crown the renewed relationship.

Assad and Jordan’s king have also recently exchanged visits for the first time in several years.

Syria has several long-term aims in any reconciliation with the U.S. Assad has said he wants the U.S. to mediate Syrian-Israeli negotiations, in which Damascus seeks the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Syria also wants U.S. economic sanctions lifted and foreign investment, particularly Gulf Arab money for its economy. It is also wary of an international tribunal set up to try the perpetrators of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut at a time when Syria controlled the country.

Rome, (SANA)- Syrian Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Adel Safar said Thursday that the agricultural sector in Syria enjoys a special significance in service of the comprehensive and sustainable development with the aim of ensuring food security and advancing scientific agricultural researches and the process of production and marketing.

During his interposition to meetings of the 136th session of Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Safar indicted to the set of measures taken by the Syrian Government to support the agricultural sector, such as raising price of purchase of the strategic agricultural products, financial exemptions on agricultural loan interests and establishing a special fund for supporting agricultural products.

He asserted that agricultural development in the 10th five-year plan focuses on best and sustainable use of natural resources and it encourages investment in the agricultural sector.

Later, Minister Safar discussed with FAO Director General Jacques Diouf aspects of agricultural cooperation and joint projects undertaken by FAO in Syria as well as the studies and proposals to carry out other projects related to food security, organic agriculture, fighting dryness and climate changes.