Some advice from US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley to Damascus ahead of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz’s visit to Beirut on Friday: “Listen carefully to what King Abdullah has to say,” the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported late Wednesday.

King Abdullah is meeting with Assad in Damascus on Thursday before the two men head to Lebanon.

Crowley also said Syria should distance itself from Iran and “move in a more constructive direction.” Damascus gets very little out of its relationship with Tehran, but now it has the opportunity to play a more constructive role in the region, which Syria failed to do in recent years, KUNA quoted Crowley as saying.

The US official told reporters that the Saudi king’s trip to Damascus and Beirut is “consistent with his search for peace and his promotion of the Arab Peace Initiative.”

King Abdullah kicked off his regional tour in Egypt on Wednesday, meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

 -NOW Lebanon

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