Shara and Palacio's conference in Damascus
Syria-Spain, Politics, 4/22/2003

Foreign Minister, Farouk Al-Shara, has underlined the continuous development of the Syrian-Spanish relations which proved its benefit to Syria, Spain and to the region in general.

"Syrian-Spanish and Syrian-European relations will witness more progress and development in the forthcoming stage in all fields." Al-Shara said in a joint press conference on Monday with his Spanish counterpart, Ana Maria Palacio.

He pointed out that Palacio's visit to Syria comes in a critical stage adding that her talks with President Bashar Al-Assad focused on the Iraqi and Palestinian causes.

"I think that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powel's forthcoming visit to Syria is not for offering demands but for dialogue." Al-Shara said.

He added that Powell's visit to Syria expresses a continued dialogue between Syria and United States for finding better atmosphere after war.

Al-Shara said that there is a long agenda that includes all issues of mutual concern including the Arab-Israeli struggle, peace process, Road Map, stressing that Syria's stances towards these causes are known.

"There are many problems facing peoples of the region, the US and British also are facing problems and we have to tackle all these problems and I think that Syria is able to do many things to find outlet to the crisis resulting from the US invasion on Iraq." Shara said.

Regarding the change in the Syrian-US relations, he replied that there was a change in Washington not in Damascus and that Syria was and is still working for peace and for solving the Arab-Israeli struggle.

Regarding the last statements of US. President, George W. Bush, al-Shara asserted that dialogue is Syria's principled policy with all the world' states and "we are for dialogue and cooperation and welcome any positive reaction by the US Administration."

For her part, Palacio underlined that her talks with President Al-Assad and al-Shara touched upon the Iraqi cause, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in addition to Syrian-Spanish relations.

Regarding the US statements against Syria, Palacio stressed "These statements don't help and don't reflect the dialogue we made with the Americans and these statements must not prevent Syria from continuing her role."

She expressed desire for working with Syria for building up a future relation for the interest of the Iraqi people. Palacio praised Syria's role regarding the Iraqi crisis and described it a responsible role.

She said that Syria enjoys a distinguished position and role and it plays a main role regarding all issues.

Palacio indicated that in spite of differences between us regarding the Iraqi cause, "we completely agree with Syria about Iraq's future and that was expressed in the recent European Summit declaration which supported the issue of Iraq's unity, territorial integrity and self-determination."

Palacio called to the necessity of intensifying efforts for reaching a solution to the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Previous Stories:
  Spanish foreign minister to visit Syria   (4/17/2003)
  Al-Assad, gets phone call from Aznar   (4/17/2003)
  Al-Sahara gets telephone calls from Spanish, Iranian peers   (4/16/2003)

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