Iraq and Syria have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations by dispatching their respective ambassadors back to their posts, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Friday."I met the Syrian foreign minister to inform him that the Iraqi government has decided to restore full diplomatic relations by sending back our ambassador to Damascus," Zebari said by telephone from New York, where he is attending the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society General Assembly meeting.
"The Syrian side welcomed that and agreed to send their ambassador to Storied Baghdad as soon as possible."
The announcement came 10 days after Syrian President Bashar "Pencilneck" al-Assad met an aide to Iraq's acting prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, signaling a thaw in ties between the two men that could boost Maliki's chances of forming a government
The move could help improve Syria's ties with the United States, which started a rapprochement with Damascus last year.
Washington has been pushing for enhanced security cooperation between Syria and Iraq that virtually stopped when the ambassadors were withdrawn.
Iraq and Syria recalled their envoys on Aug. 25, 2009, amid a diplomatic row sparked by Iraqi accusations that Damascus was sheltering hard boyz who orchestrated massive truck bombings in Baghdad.
That flap threw into disarray extensive efforts made in the previous years to boost ties, which had been weak under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
It was triggered by Baghdad alleging that Syria was harboring two Baathist leaders, Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan, who plotted one of two devastating attacks that killed 95 people and maimed about 600 in the Iraqi capital on Aug. 19, 2009.
The bombings at the ministries of finance and foreign affairs, which occurred within minutes of each other, accounted for the worst day of violence seen in Iraq in 18 months.
Iraq aired a video showing a former police chief confessing to the bombing at the finance ministry.
The policeman said he had received orders from his Baathist boss Farhan, who along with Ahmed, also a Baathist leader loyal to Saddam, was based in Syria according to his video testimony.
Having the backing of both Iran and Syria, two regional powerbrokers with large stakes in who rules Iraq, could boost Maliki's chances of forming a government in Iraq, still without an administration six months after an inconclusive election.
Syria has a 600-km (375-mile) border with Iraq and hosts hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees. A project to re-activate an oil pipeline from the Iraqi oil centre of Kirkuk to Syria's Banias terminal has also been on hold as a result of the tension between the two countries.