Syrian regime intelligence chief in Egypt for 'coordination of political positions'

Syrian regime intelligence chief Ali Mamluk held talks in Egypt on Monday with a view to coordinating political stances between Damascus and Cairo, Syria's official SANA news agency reported.

SANA said Mamluk met with Egyptian head of general intelligence Khaled Fawzy and other "high-level security officials" during his one-day visit.

The Syrian and Egyptian officials "agreed to coordinate on political positions... and strengthen coordination on fighting the terrorism faced by both countries," SANA said.

A Syrian political source in Damascus said that Mamluk had "met with Egyptian officials in Cairo previously, but this is his first public visit."

The visit comes amid tension between Egypt and Saudi Arabia after Cairo voted in favor of a Russian draft resolution that called for a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

Riyadh opposed the Russian draft, which had failed to garner the votes needed for ratification.

While Cairo advocates a political solution for the six-year Syrian conflict, Riyadh is a staunch foe of the Bashar al-Assad regime and calls for his departure.

Mamluk was appointed as the head of national security in 2012 after a major explosion in Damascus killed four top security officials.

He is considered to be a key member of President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle and is blacklisted under EU sanctions.

Mamluk's last public appearance was in May 2015 in a meeting between Assad and the head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, Alaedin Boroujerdi.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to UN figures.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, a Beirut-based NGO, puts the death toll from the five-year conflict at more than 470,000.