The President of Just and Comprehensive Peace

"Such threats do not serve the cause of peace in the region; rather they keep the points of tension hot, the fact that keeps the threat of the emergence of new circles of violence in the region possible as well as putting obstacles and impediments in the way of achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region."

" The ball of peace which they throw at different courts according to their whims is a heavy ball and carrying it needs statesmen who are able to make difficult decisions and not just people in offices who carry this ball with them wherever they might be and it moves around and they move with their political posts."

"The said second factor for peace would never be there without the first one, that is of the land, which is never subject for negotiations,'' added the President. Considering the past ten years of the Israeli maneuvers in peace talks, President Assad called for '' clear guarantees' regarding the full return of the land to the line of 1967'' through "an official Israeli written document" or at least "through an Israeli announcement before the whole world that it would in full withdraw from the land." Considering the failure of Mideast peace sponsors during the last ten years, President Assad noted that a sponsor has to be like a '' judge'', entrusted with a certain law recognized by the world, calling for a clear approach as to sponsor the process of peace and for a Euro-US dialogue and even with the UN citing that '' Israel was rewarded, though it stands against peace, while Arabs were punished and pressured and accused, though they stand with the peace process,"

"The peace process is in need for a peace plan and not for words, for content not for form," the President added calling for action as to salvage the Palestinians from '' massacres'' and from '' the new holocaust'' calling on Arab countries, which have relations with Israel, to break them off before it is too late. "The only reference for the peace process is that of Madrid and the resolutions it is based upon." the President stressed asserting that there is no need whatsoever for another conference; hence the basics are the same and would never be changed."

"We, in Syria, like things to be clear. We do not like to address any issue in a vague foggy environment. We have important things that we would like to do to our country and we have no time to waste on issues which do not lead us anywhere. The mistake that was committed by some European countries and by the United States is that they believed that negotiations by themselves could bring peace."

" The peace process is in need of parties willing to make peace. It needs a sponsor as well. The Arab side be it a Palestinian, Syrian or Lebanese, since the Madrid conference in 1991 when the peace process was launched, has expressed in practice, words and political discourse, its willingness to achieve peace, while the Israeli side has not been so. For instance, when the Madrid conference was announced, then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said: "we will make negotiations go on for ten years." In other words, he as a Prime Minister expressed his unwillingness to make peace. Now after 13 years, peace has not been realized. ‏"

" The second point is that following the assassination of Rabin in 1995, Israel didn’t have any Prime Minister who actually wanted peace, each one of them wants to prove himself and win the elections through killing more Palestinians or shelling neighboring countries. This is the policy which is adopted in Israel. ‏" " On the other hand, the peace process sponsor has an important role, but Americans are not interested so much in the peace process. The priority for them is the Iraq issue. On the peace tracks, the priority for them is only the Palestinian track. But we say that if the peace process is not comprehensive, peace will not be realized. We cannot say a Syrian, Lebanese or Palestinian track only, since they are interrelated tracks. ‏"

" We call it a just and comprehensive peace. If it is not achieved, there will be no peace. They always look for peace agreements, which are no more than paper documents, but peace is a world in itself and people, it should be between peoples but not between officials, foreign ministers, presidents or heads of governments. In order for peace to be between peoples, the agreed upon issues on paper must be in agreement with the interests of peoples, and just."‏ The problem of the peace process is that it has broken away from the Security Council resolutions. ‏ Of course, the Madrid Conference embodied the Security Council resolutions, Had work been done on the implementation of the Security Council resolutions and the Madrid conference, there would have been no problem. ‏"

"Andarono così: il presidente Clinton chiamò mio padre al telefono. Lo convocò a un vertice a sorpresa. Gli disse, vieni, vedrai, sarai soddisfatto. Aveva ricevuto assicurazioni dal premier israeliano Barak. Clinton incontrò mio padre a Ginevra. L'accordo era sulla restituzione del Golan a eccezione di una fascia larga cento metri lungo il Lago di Tiberiade. All'ultimo istante Barak si tirò indietro. Fu preso dal timore prima di salire a bordo dell'aereo che doveva condurlo al vertice. Capì che Israele non era pronto alla pace, che lui non aveva un sostegno politico alle spalle. E invece la Siria era pronta. Già con Rabin avevamo sfiorato la pace. Poi Rabin è stato ucciso, e con lui le speranze."

"Per la Siria, lo ripeto, la pace è una scelta strategica. Per Israele, invece, cambia di governo in governo".

"And we're still ready. So we haven't changed as Syria. What changed, two things. The administration in the United States has changed and the government in Israel."

" Thirdly, since it came to power, the US Administration has not showed any real desire for peace particularly on the Syrian track. If the US and Israel are not interested in the peace process, we cannot expect any serious move soon. At the same time Turkey tried to play a positive role in the issue particularly during my visit to Turkey, and that was one of the first issues proposed by President Ahmet Nacdet Sezer to me. And I told him at that time that we trust Turkey because she understands our position, and Turkey's position has always been fair with regard to the peace issue and to the Arab issues in general and regarding the Palestinian issue and the issue of the occupied Syrian territories namely the Golan. You can go ahead and we support any Turkish role in this report. There was actually an Israeli rejection of any role because there was no desire in the peace process, and as I said Syria's position has not changed."

"We started the peace negotiations in 1991 with Israel. We said when Israel withdraws from our lands we recognize Israel. So when you say recognize you say it when you achieve peace. Anyway, when you have peace talks with Israel, this means you recognize the reality of Israel. But when you say verbally that we recognize it politically, that will come as a result of the peace. So, the position of Hamas is like this. They used to say we don't accept Israel but now they don't say it. Recently, Hamas has become very pragmatic, very realistic."

"That will take me back to what I said in the previous answer: the solution is through United Nations or Security Council Resolutions. Security Council resolutions define the borders by June 1967. So the fence is much far behind. I mean behind Palestinian territories. So this won't lead to any solution. The facts proved that this fence wouldn't do much to Israel, so I will advice any rational Israeli to go back to these resolutions. This is the main solution. You may sometimes win some political, security and military battles but eventually you need the stability and it happens when you have normal relations. The fence won't give you normal relations. It is a matter of people not governments."

"Syria has always talked about peace as a strategic option, and Syria seeks to restore rights without a high price by peaceful means and the next few months will determine war or peace depending on the Israelis in the first place."

"The issue of peace was at the heart of these events and cast shadows over other issues. This process receded, in its general atmosphere, many steps backward, not only because of Israeli intransigence and its rejection to respond to the requirement of peace, but also because of the lack of international responsibility, when Israel is concerned, for the implementation of international resolutions, and the lack of seriousness on the part of the international community in shouldering its responsibilities in this concern."

"As far as we are concerned, we have stressed on many occasions that peace in our region will not be achieved until we restore our occupied land; and that many of the problems that have appeared recently find their solution in providing the opportunities for just peace, which removes the causes of tension, conflict, frustration and disappointment. Syria has proposed the resumption of negotiations without preconditions. But we stress at the same time that the absence of these conditions doesn’t mean discarding the frames of reference, the rules and resolutions which have to be met and implemented. Our frame of reference is that of Madrid which includes resolutions of the international legitimacy. It was not surprising for us that Israel rejected the resumption of negotiations, and has put condition under deferent pretexts to escape and avoid the requirements of peace. We simply think that the peace process needs requirements: first of all, the will of the parties to achieve peace, second to have an honest sponsor, and third technical requirements like negotiations, terms of reference and standards. What is lacking today is the will of the Israelis; the will of the sponsor, the United States, and also the standards and criteria. So the peace process is stalled for the foreseeable future. But until that time we should not stop talking about the peace process. That is why we continue dialogue with our European friends and other concerned parties, in order to identify the mistakes of the past and in order to draw a vision for the future. And when all these conditions change we proceed forward with the peace process."

"In fact, there is no progress in the peace process and there is not any contacts with Israel whether secretly or publicly, because Israel is not ready for the just and comprehensive peace which needs strong leaderships that can take decisive decisions, particularly in the presence of a weak government incapable to take such strategic decision,"

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