Syrian National Progressive Front meets on external developments
Syria, Politics, 12/29/2003

Under the auspices of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, the regular meeting of the Leaderships of the branches of the National Progressive Front ( NPF) and its political leaderships was opened in Damascus on Saturday.

President al-Assad was represented at the meeting by the Vice-President and Deputy Chairman of the National Progressive Front ( NPF), Mohammad Zuheir Masharqa.

The meeting was held under the slogan "the National Progressive Front is the most important achievements of the Correction Movement." The Vice-President and Deputy Chairman of the National Progressive Front ( NPF), Moahmmad Zuheir Masharqa, on Saturday delivered a speech in which he stressed that the current deadlock of the Middle East peace process is due to Israel's anti-peace policy, and reiterated Syria's readiness to resume peace negotiations from where it left off.

"Israel neither wants nor seeks peaceÉ.it instead gets more obstinate, arrogant and insists on evading peace requirements and denies relevant international resolutions, while Syria expresses readiness to resume peace negotiations from the point they stopped at," Masharqa said.

The Vice-President said the whole world "knows that Israel answered the Arab Peace Initiative adopted in the Beirut summit, in March last year, by escalating its aggression on the Palestinians and on the neighboring occupied Arab landsÉthe war criminal Ariel Sharon launches an extermination war on the Palestinian Arab people, leads a racial cleansing campaign and continues building the racial separation wall to corner the Palestinians in ghettoes and cantons."

He added that Israel denies the Palestinian masses their right in resisting occupation and confronting invaders, under the support of the U.S. administration where it describes acts of national resistance in the occupied lands as acts of terrorism. Those acts of resistance are indeed legitimate according to international charters and normsÉthey have been practiced by all peoples whose lands were under occupation, and whose independence was lost, and sovereignty violated.

The Vice-President said the real terrorism is that which is perpetrated by Israel in the occupied Arab landsÉIsrael has been practicing the ugliest form and sort of terrorism to turn the Palestinian people into people with no will, and to push them into frustrationÉIsrael is the most dangerous spot of terrorism in the region and the worldÉit was based on terrorism, survived with it and practices it daily in Palestine.

Masharqa went on to say that the whole world recognized this fact, and knows that Israel, with its hostile, expansionist policy in the region and its daily crimes in the occupied lands as well as acts of terrorism and rejection of just and comprehensive peace, poses threat to international security and peace. This fact has been made clear by the latest European opinion polls where 59 percent of those interviewed stressed that Israel constitutes gravest threat to international peace and security, and even opinion polls in the U.S. showed that 43 PCT saw the same threat.

The Vice-President said this requires a more active and influential role by the international community, particularly the EU, and a neutral, honest and objective role by the U.S. to help peace process reach its sought-for ends. This necessitates that the American administration possess the clear vision of the peace process, and suitable means to make this process a success.

He emphasized that Syria under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad seriously seeks to cement Arab solidarity and to enable the Arab Nation confront challenges and dangersÉSyria seeks to activate Arab common work to serve all Pan-Arab causes in a way to drum up more support to Arab legitimate rights, and establish just and comprehensive peace as a strategic option for Syria and the Arab Nation, based on the international resolutions, the land-for-peace formula, Madrid's term of reference and the resolutions of the Arab Beirut Summit in March 2002.

He asserted that peace according to Syria should lead to Israeli total withdrawal from the occupied Arab lands to June 4th 1967 lines, and the restoration of the usurped Arab rights, particularly Palestinian people's rights to return home and to establish an independent state with the Holy Jerusalem as capital.

The Vice-President said that Syria's role has been getting more enhanced under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad thanks to his activities and influential role on various Arab, Islamic and international levels.

He added that "President al-Assad made it clear in his recent interview with the New York Times that the U.S. is a superpower with effect in the world in different fields, and it is naturally that we seek to establish good relations with it in all fields. Syria Accountability Act, apart from its effects, constitutes new obstacle before development of ties between the two countriesÉ "Besides if there is no cooperation between Syria and the U.S. on many issues of the region, then it would be very difficult to achieve any result in any issueÉ.so we look at Syria Accountability Act as an obstruction in the way of such cooperation which would be very useful for our region if it is achieved." On Iraq, Masharqa said "the U.S. occupation of this country resulted in the downfall of the state institutions, and the spread of chaos and destructionÉthe pressure of occupation has aggravated the suffering of the Iraqi people and added to the suffering in terms of living standard during the 12 years of siege which was imposed on Iraq."

He added that the ordinary person in Iraq lives a real tragedy, as he lacks security and serenity as well as essential services, including water, power, transport, health and education. "Syria is keen on the unity of Iraq, on the restoration of independence and national sovereigntyÉwith its masses able to build a free, democratic Iraq under free public willÉthis requires a pivotal, influential role by the UN that leads to the withdrawal of the occupation troops according to a specific timetable."

He stressed that the NPF is one of the most important achievements of the glorious Correction Movement led by the great late leader Hafez al-Assad, underlining that Syria under the Movement has achieved an advanced experiment on the Arab and international arenas, in terms of political multi-party field and characterized by being vivid, flexible and open up to public organizations. In a speech delivered by Secretary General of the Socialists Unionists Party, Fayez Ismael, he stressed that President Bashar al-Assad shoulders the responsibility of supporting and building the National Progressive Front.

He described the (NPF) as the only Arab Popular institution that called in its charter for the national unity and for the Arab National Progressive powers unity as a strategic goal based on the rational analysis to develop the society.

Meantime, Syria's Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara said Saturday that Syria's policy, which has stabilized and established balanced since the launch of the Correction Movement, and has become more clear and firm in spite of some endeavors to prejudice against it.

In an address to the meeting of the leaderships of the branches of the National Progressive Front ( NPF ) and its political leaderships being held in Damascus, Shara reiterated that Syria has contributed to Lebanon's stability, it opposed occupation of Kuwait, was with the first countries which called for a national conference to combat terrorism and participated in Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. Al-Shara's comments came apparently in response to some media allegations that describe the Syrian policy as strict. Concerning the so-called Syria Accountability Act, al-Shara made clear that it is not permissible for any country to impose sanctions on another unilaterally, in violation of international laws. "This act would add a new obstacle to the Syrian - American relations if it was implemented, and Syria is still committed to dialogue," Shara added.

He said that the U.S citizen doesn't care about the Israeli practices of daily killing operations, house demolishing, and the use of the U.S airplanes to raid the civilians in Palestine, and that the US only cares when Israeli civilians are hurt.

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