Egypt's president likely to meet Syria’s Assad in April: report

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is likely to meet his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad at the end of April, Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The US newspaper, citing informed sources, said Cairo and Damascus are conducting "advanced discussions" to restore diplomatic ties and to hold a top-level meeting between the two countries.

The Sisi-Assad meeting would possibly take place after the end of the holy month of Ramadan at the end of April, the daily said.

The date and the place of the meeting were not mentioned.

There was no comment from Egyptian or Syrian authorities on the report.

On Saturday, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad held talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo, the first such visit in more than a decade.

A statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the two sides agreed on intensifying channels of communication between the two countries with a view to tackling issues and matters of interest for both states.

Mekdad’s visit was the first to Egypt since Syria’s membership in the Cairo-based Arab League was suspended in November 2011 following the regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

The Syrian regime exchanged official visits with several Arab countries in recent years amid reports about a possible resumption of Syria’s membership in the Arab League.