Al-Assad outlines Syria's stand towards developments to Indian prime minister
Syria, Politics, 11/17/2003

President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday gave an Iftar banquet in honor of Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

He warmly welcomed, on his own behalf and on behalf of the Syrian people. The speech read: It gave me great pleasure to warmly welcome, on behalf of the Syrian people and on my own behalf, His Excellency Indian Prime Minister and the accompanying delegation as dear guests to our country on this lovely evening of the holy month of Ramadan, the month of blessing, love and peace, wishing them all a happy stay in Syria.

"our two countries cherished strong ties for several decades after we both got our national independence in the forties of the twentieth century, which was the fruit of the long struggle that our two peoples went through to achieve liberation from colonization. Those ties were characterized by cordial meetings, economic and cultural cooperation as well as sympathy and support to each other with regard to all the events and crises they were exposed to,, the president said.

"Our growing relations have always been based on a long history of culture communication between the Arab nation and the people of India who together share a deep-rooted civilization heritage, and diversity in their social identity which became rich through opening up to others and which were integrated by other peoples, ethnic and cultures' contributions,

" The exchange of visits by officials of our two countries helped during the past years in consolidating our bilateral friendly relations, and reinforced our common visions of the political and cultural issues which faced our modern world. It also deepened our awareness of the particularity of problems and causes that arise in each area and region,

"Undoubtedly, the membership of our two countries in the Non-Alignment Countries Movement has been a positive element in realizing coordination and consultation and placed our tow countries in the same direction with regard to foreign policy, a direction which we follow in order to build a world in which justice, tolerance and peace shall prevail, a world free of exploitation and aggression in all its forms.

"In the past few years India achieved wonderful progress at the economic, scientific, and technological levels, despite of the many difficulties which India, as well as other developing countries in general have faced. The Indian experiment is a pioneering one in achieving economic, development and in improving living conditions for its people through out its extensive land and for the various social sectors of the Indian people with capabilities and efficiencies and who look for a better life,

" I am sure that your accomplishments in a renaissance at various levels will reinforce the hopes of the developing peoples to achieve an economic development depending mainly on human capital,

"within this frame work, Syria looks forward to benefit from your pioneer experiment while we carry out an ambitious development process in our economic, financial, and educational institutions. We appreciate our cooperation during recent years and we seek to further develop it in the forthcoming period, specially in the field of consultations and services, in information technology and biotechnology, in addition to our ambition to rise the level of commercial exchange already existing between our two countries.

"No doubt you are aware of the difficult and complicated conditions in the Middle Easter region which reflect on our investment projects and affect the political relations in the world of today, Those conditions forebode most serious consequences to various peoples of the world.

"Israel continues to occupy our Arab lands and displace Arab people and refuses to implement the international resolutions which call for its withdrawal to the 1967 borders and guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people in establishing their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Recent developments of events had demonstrated that Arab efforts to establish just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East are countered by Israel with total negligence. The Arab states in the Beirut Summit in 2002 put forward a peace initiative which was fully clear and was based on international legitimacy and on the principle of land for peace. However, the Israeli response was more acts of killing and destruction and laying siege around the people of Palestine involving children, women and old aged people,

"Israel also continues to build the separation wall which grabs more parts of the Palestinian territory, consecrates an apartheid policy and undermines any effort to build peace on the basis of justice which ensures its continuity. In addition to that, Israel commits aggressions against Lebanese and Syrian territory, thus causing serious repercussions in our region and the world at large.

''This brotherly country is passing through its most difficult conditions where disturbances and chaos are prevailing and where conditions of decent life are lacking. It is only natural for us to as a country neighboring to Iraq, with solid historic ties between our two countries, to be affected by events in that country. Syria's attitude towards the Iraqi crisis was and still is based on preserving the essential interests of the Iraqi people, to provide conditions of decent life and restore social and political stability. Therefore, we again call for ending the occupation of Iraq at the very soon so as to maintain the Iraqi territorial integrity and the unity of its people and guarantee the formation of a national government fully and properly representative of all sectors of the Iraqi people in order to help them run their own affairs by themselves. In doing so we relieve the Iraqi people from suffering and help the country restore its statues and role in harmony with the history, civilization and potentials of its people,

"Throughout several past years have perceived Indian attitudes distinguished with wisdom, support of rights against wrong, and support of the call for peace against aggression. We express our full appreciation of those attitudes and reaffirm our appreciation of the distinct Indian denunciation of the Israeli aggression against Syrian territory, India's objective stand towards Iraq and India's willingness to offer humanitarian help to the Iraqi people in order to overcome their calamity,

"We are hopeful that the friendly people of India will enjoy progress and prosperity in an atmosphere of peace and fraternity, and that the existing problems in the region will find proper solution based on justice which ensures the rights of all sides. In this regard, we value the peace initiatives already announced for the solution of these disputes and resumption of normal relations among the states of the region, which may lead to a state of stability in the region and to a peaceful solution of the conflict,

"We view your present visit with high estimation. In view of its significance and dimensions, and of the good feelings expressed in it towards Syria during this difficult period. We hope that your visit will give a push forward to the relations of friendship and cooperation already existing between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Republic of India. We are keen to benefit both of us in the best manner from this visit and hope to succeed in translating our discussions and agreements into policies and programs valid for execution in the nearest future, Again I welcome Your Excellency and the distinguished members of your accompanying delegation, wish you all good health and happiness, and wish the friendly people of India increased prosperity,'' the President concluded.

Previous Stories:
  India's ambassador in Damascus: Our support to the Arab cause undiminished   (11/15/2003)
  Al-Hakim deplores the Accountability legislation against Syria   (11/15/2003)
  France stresses continued dialogue with Syria   (11/15/2003)

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