Upon his arrival on an official visit to Italy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reiterated that striking Iraq would lead to uncontrolled troubled.
“As we are a neighbor to sisterly Iraq, it would be natural and intuitive to sympathize with it and stand against any strike or military action against it,” al-Assad said in an interview with the Italian daily Coriera de la Sierra, published on Sunday.
The Syrian President stressed that striking Iraq or any similar action against this country would lead to “troubles difficult to define in frame and extension.” “I don’t think it is in the U.S. interest to create more tension and troubles in the world,” he emphasized.
al-Assad added that war against terrorism should be in “ideology and not military” and that people’s rights were the margin that separates between legal resistance and terrorism. “Terrorism has no borders. It is not connected to a religion or a nationality ……Is what going on now a combat against terrorism? No, there is only a military war against a supposed enemy that neither we nor the Americans know,” the president explained.
Regarding peace negotiations with Israel, the president stressed that negotiations should be “a tool” and not “a goal.” “We will not waste our time in things that will not lead to a result as (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is completely far from peace,” he said.
He added that Syria has not put any condition for achieving peace and that it just wanted the application of UN resolutions and Madrid’s terms of reference. “These references were not put by Syria. They were basically American ideas; then became an international resolution as the whole world approved them,” Syria’s president noted.
“We are ready to make peace. We don’t care who is in power in Israel; but peace cannot be achieved unless all rights, without any diminution, are recovered,” he declared. (Albawaba.com)
