Report: Israel, Syria to discuss bird flu
Representatives of Israel, Syria, Iraq, to meet Thursday, Arabic-language papers report
A word of the planned meeting was leaked after Jordan’s agriculture minister met with his country’s parliament speaker and other parliament members, Arabic-language newspapers al-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Bayan reported Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture Ministry confirmed a meeting on the matter will take place in Jordan on Thursday. The Health Ministry, however, said it was unaware of the meeting.
Later, Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman Daphna Yurista said Israeli officials will meet with their Jordanian counterparts - but not with representatives from other countries such as Syria and Iraq.
“The representatives may be briefed about the preparations of neighboring countries that Jordan maintains contacts with and Israeli doesn’t,” the spokeswoman said
According to the newspaper report, Jordan views the meeting as a “technical coordination session” in order to deal with the disease, and called to avoid politicization of the issue. The Jordanian minister refused to provide further details and said it will be attended by neighboring countries in order to learn about preventive steps that could help curb the spread of the disease.
On Tuesday, European Union foreign ministers characterized the spread of bird flu as a global threat in a session convened several hours after new cases of the disease were discovered in Romani.
The bird flu virus does not exist in Israel for the time being, head of the chicken branch in the Agriculture Ministry, Dr. Shimon Pokamonski, said Saturday, in wake of fears that the deadly virus spread to Israel.
"We are examining all reports in the chicken industry for fear of the disease or any problem," he said. "Several reports were received over the weekend and we took samples in for laboratory testing. It revealed that there is no reason for concern."
