Al-Assad: Syria has the right to possess defensive weapons
Syria, Politics, 1/28/2005

Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad stressed that the connection between the state visit to Russia and a weapon deal is a wrong matter. "Process of buying missiles is not necessary to be accomplished during a state visit to the Russian president, but there are institutions which are concerned with that." President al-Assad said in an interview with the Russian first channel T.V ahead of his visit to Russia.

He added that the long-date military cooperation between Syria and Russia stipulates for providing Syria with defensive weapons. "When Israel doesn't want Syria to possess defensive missiles to defend its airspace, it voices its aggressive desire from one side and its interference in Russia's internal affairs from the other side," he stressed.

On future of contemporary Syria, President al-Assad emphasized that Syria is part of the region "so when we look to Syria's future we have to take into consideration future of the region as a whole."

"Syria has been playing a role to create and support stability in the Middle East," President al-Assad said pointing out that Syrian society was distinguished by unique characteristics like supporting dialogue among civilizations.

He added that restoration of the occupied Arab territories is on top of the priorities of the Syria society.

On religion and Islamic- Christian coexistence in Syria, President al-Assad said that religion means full trust in God, in addition, it means tolerance, love, security, peace, development and logic, all of these positive issues. Syria, as a secular country, President al-Assad continues, and has been able to devote those values through understanding the meaning of secularism .. as freedom of religion inside this moral frame.

Regarding the Islamic-Christian historic ruins which had been merged in Damascus, and the best historical places which President al-Assad advises guests to visit, President al-Assad answered that Syria is like a great museum .. it is a small country, but it is one of the richest countries in the world that has historical diversity .. it is difficult to decide which site is best to visit.. we have thousands of historical sites in Syria .. I believe that the most important sites where you can see the successive of civilizations in a few hundreds of meters .... for example I mention Palmyra the famous kingdom which played an important political and economic role at the times of Queen Zenobia.. Ma'aloula where you can see the oldest convents, and the Umayyad Mosque which is considered one of the most important Islamic sites in the world.

On the measures taken by the Syrian government to maintain and keep this cultural unique heritage of Syria, President al-Assad added that due to the great number of ruins and historical sites in Syria, thus the burden of restoring them is big .. so we cooperate with international organizations to maintain and restore those ruins. Regarding heritage, President al-Assad said, we keep them through cultural activities, for example "we opened an institution to teach the Aramaic language in Ma'aloula to become a living language ... another side is the continuation of natural life stemmed from this heritage, and this is represented in Damascus and Aleppo as two oldest inhabited cities in the world."

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