Al-Assad describes Sharon as killer; Changing the Iraqi regime costs millions of lives
Syria-Regional, Politics, 10/18/2002

Syrian President Bashar al- Assad on Thursday said that any war against Iraq will take the region into "the unknown," stressing that the Iraqi regime can not be changed without killing of millions, because the situation is different from that in Afghanistan.

While the Syrian president stressed his commitment to supporting resistance, he described the Israeli prime minister as mere "a killer for us. we did not see from him even a naive peace initiative."

In an interview with Reuters, al-Assad warned that the war against Iraq will have destructive consequences on the region as a whole, adding that " certainly the region will be affected. War means impoverish the people and this will directly and indirectly affect the countries of the region, economically and we will have another new problem that we have to solve as a country from a social and economic aspect." In the interview which was made by Reuters Chief editor Gert Linbink, al-Assad said "we are against the war on Iraq. As a principle, we are first against the use of force and we question the announced objective of this war. They are talking about changing the Iraqi regime. And this is a matter which is decided by the Iraqis and nobody else. They can not change the regime without killing millions of peoples."

Al-Assad was asked about the press reports which indicated the possibility that the US will appoint an American ruler for Iraq after toppling the Iraqi regime. He replied "Talking that there is someone will come to run Iraq from abroad is not realistic. Iraq can be only led by the Iraqis. Al the scenarios about the Iraqi war are not realistic." He continued " we will continue to improve our relations with the US despite the fact when we tell them our convictions they ( the Americans ) say we are radicals. I commit to my own convictions. When I discover I am wrong, I will change my convictions."

Previous Stories:
  Presided by al-Assad, Syrian NPF central command meets on developments, Palestine and Iraq   (10/8/2002)
  Al-Assad meets Abul Ragheb, Abdullah Bin Zayed   (9/30/2002)
  Al-Shara discuss with Powell Iraqi issue; meets Sabri and Moussa   (9/18/2002)

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