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Last update - 17:49 30/03/2009
Assad: Israel's new government is against peace
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel news, Syria, Obama 

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday urged Arab leaders convened in Qatar for a regional summit to reject a 2002 Saudi peace initiative, as Israel had demonstrated that it was not a "real partner" to peace, and that "The real aim of Israel's recently elected government is against peace and that the composition of the incoming Cabinet is a clear, unsurprising message to us," Assad said.

"We Arabs, since we offered the Arab initiative, do not have a real partner in the peace process," he told the leaders.

Assad's speech suggested Assad still hopes for talks but was taking a tougher tone to confront what he expects to be a hard-line stance from Netanyahu's government coalition, dominated by right-wing parties.
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"This doesn't demand we change our strategic option regarding peace," Assad said. "But [our] tactics and mechanisms must change, not with the changing the governments of Israel but with ... the aggressiveness Israel shows toward us."

Assad underlined the need for continued resistance, a reference to anti-Israeli militant groups like the Palestinian Hamas, which Damascus supports.

"Resistance is a national and patriotic and moral duty and it is the only
option," he said. "Peace cannot be achieved with an enemy who does not believe in peace without it being imposed on him by resistance."

Several weeks ago, Assad told the weekly magazine the New Yorker that though it may take some time, Syria still believes in the power of serious dialogue to produce a lasting peace with Israel.

In an interview via email several days after Israel and Hamas declared unilateral cease-fires following Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip, Assad said that though Israel was "doing everything possible to undermine the prospects for peace," he was still very interested in closing a deal.

"We have to wait a little while to see how things will evolve and how the situation changes," Assad wrote as Israel voted in a new government headed by Benjamin Netanyau. "We still believe that we need to conclude a serious dialogue to lead us to peace," he declared.

In the interview, Assad argued that Israel understands that the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, is not negotiable.

"The Israelis know that we are not going to negotiate the line of 1967," Assad wrote, but suggested that compromises were possible. "We only demarcate the line," he wrote. "We negotiate the relations, the water and everything else."

"You discuss everything after the peace and getting your land. Not before," Assad stressed.

The Syrian leader criticized Israel for wasting time on the wrong issues, referring to Israel's insistence that Syria sever its ties with Iran and the militant groups the Islamic republic supports - Lebanon's militia Hezbollah and the Gaza rulers Hamas - under the terms of a peace agreement.

In order to achieve a peace agreement, Assad wrote, Israel would have to focus on "core issues" - issues relating to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - "and not waste time talking about who is going to send arms to Hezbollah or Hamas. Wherever you have resistance in the region, they will have armaments somehow. It is very simple."

"Hezbollah is in Lebanon and Hamas is in Palestine," Assad continued. "If they want to solve the problem with Hezbollah they have to deal with Lebanon. For Hamas, they have to deal with Gaza. For Iran, it is not part of the peace process anyway. This peace is about peace between Syria and Israel."

The Syrian president reiterated his stance that it was now, more than ever, "essential that the United States play a prominent and active role in the peace process," explaining that Syria required direct contact with U.S. President Barack Obama in order to advance the diplomatic process.

Assad also lauded the diplomatic efforts of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, saying that "Carter is most knowledgeable about the Middle East and he does not try to dictate or give sermons. He sincerely is trying to think creatively and find solutions that are outside the box."

Israel and Syria held four rounds of indirect talks mediated by Turkey last year, but Syria cut off the negotiations in protest over Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza in December and January.


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  • Assad congratulates Hamas on 'victory' over IDF in Gaza
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      1.   GOLAN WAS ANEXED,BASTA 10:39  |  BOB KING 30/03/09
      2.   How Convenient 11:30  |  leo 30/03/09
      3.   Bob King, Bibi will sell the Golan to Obama 11:43  |  Mark B. 30/03/09
      4.   Ahmadinijad still believes in a world without Israel 11:54  |  lily 30/03/09
      5.   #1 Ahem, BOB KING...... 11:57  |  Johnboy 30/03/09
      6.   No land before end of negotiations 12:50  |  Arthur 30/03/09
      7.   Idiocy IN Assad 12:50  |  Khaled 30/03/09
      8.   To No. FIVE 12:54  |  Khaled 30/03/09
      9.   Israel mustn`t waste time on who sends arms to Hamas .... 13:18  |  disgusted american 30/03/09
      10.   Assad`s "availability" and wise commet 13:51  |  Andy 30/03/09
      11.   If he is realistic 14:34  |  Mark Lincoln 30/03/09
      12.   If I were Israel, I would appreciate Assad`s sincerity ... 14:55  |  Casper 30/03/09
      13.   Give the land, and then discuss !!!!! 14:56  |  David Plane 30/03/09
      14.   Said the Spider to the Fly 15:36  |  Angela 30/03/09
      15.   Assad contradicts himself 15:43  |  Conroy 30/03/09
      16.   He wants his land back 15:55  |  Welshman 30/03/09
      17.   "Israel not a peace partner"? Guess we`ll keep Golan! 15:56  |  Kenny 30/03/09
      18.   SYRIA cant even make up its own mind & half of them are hardly 16:07  |  PETER SM 30/03/09
      19.   Typical 16:16  |  LJKelley 30/03/09
      20.   Mark B is this what you believe of all three 16:23  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 30/03/09
      21.   # 3 Marrk B. one problem with this strategy mark 17:33  |  abraham 30/03/09
      22.   Is Syria a serious peace partner ? 18:39  |  Jean Van Daem 30/03/09
      23.   #11 Abraham, Israel is held hostage by the settlermovement 18:42  |  Mark B. 30/03/09
      24.   #20 Margie in TA 18:42  |  Mark B. 30/03/09
      25.   Israel`s government is against peace. 19:31  |  David Nigel Braham 30/03/09
      26.   How ignorant to choose a dead-end road like Assad! 19:42  |  Tom Lobo Meyer 30/03/09
      27.   #13 Mark B. it can work if the usa and eu help israel 19:45  |  abraham 30/03/09
      28.   Supporting the resistance is bankrupt policy 20:06  |  Abuya 30/03/09
      29.   Israel`s new government 20:14  |  Alan 30/03/09
      30.   A different mediator 21:09  |  not again 30/03/09
      31.   What would be the price of peace for Assad and Syria? 21:47  |  Israeli citizen 30/03/09
      32.   What is the price Assad is willing to pay for peace? 22:07  |  Israeli citizen 30/03/09
      33.   The bitter fruits of the Gaza War 23:50  |  Yesh Prabhu 30/03/09
      34.   Israel KEEPS the Palestinians just where they want them 00:28  |  Ivar 31/03/09
      35.   #6 Depends on who he is addressing, Conroy 01:16  |  Johnboy 31/03/09
      36.   Assad is against the people of Syria 01:29  |  Realist 31/03/09
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