Syrian foreign minister speech at Brussels conference on Iraq

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara on Wednesday delivered a speech at the underway Brussels conference on Iraq in which he stressed that the success of the meeting depended on meeting the aspirations of the Iraqi people in supporting the country's unity and its full security and independence.

The Minister underscored importance of complementing the ongoing political process in Iraq through national accord embodied by the writing of the constitution and upcoming elections.

He also stressed necessity of supporting the Iraqi government in establishing security and stability and putting a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops in line with the UN Security Council resolution 1546.

Shara in this regard reiterated Syria's readiness to cooperate with the Iraqi government to boost security of the long borders in a practical and concrete way.

In reference to the USA, he pointed out that the party which blocks Syria from securing its borders in a better way is the party which directs accusations against Syria and blocks it from getting needed technology to protect its long borders.

The Foreign Minister added that security and stability in Iraq are linked by factors of neighborhood and history with the threatened security and stability of Syria due to continued Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan and the other occupied Arab lands.

He expressed belief that the participants in this conference would call for the implementation of UN resolutions for all the nations without exceptions.

The Minister indicated that the importance of this conference is not due to the great number of countries participants and the international organizations but to the acknowledgement of the urgent need to a group work to help Iraq and put an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people.