Al-Assad discuss Syria- U.S. ties with anti-war academics
Syria-USA, Politics, 9/21/2005

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad discussed on Tuesday the Syrian - American relations with a delegation of the U. S. academics who had opposed the Iraq war.

"Talks also dealt with latest developments in the current situation on the Arab, international and regional arenas," the presidential statement said.

President al-Assad explained to the U.S. delegation Syria's positions over issues of peace, terror and Iraq. Head of the US anti-war delegation James Jennings on Tuesday described his meeting with President Bashar al-Assad as direct, fruitful and positive.

"The aim of our delegation visit is to reach a suitable situation to hold dialogue between the Syrian and U.S. sides... as well as convey a message to the U.S. people saying that we should be fair with Syria, and don't take quick decisions on different issues between both countries." Jennings, president of "Conscience International," a humanitarian aid organization told SANA.

He added that the meeting dealt with a number of Arab, regional and international issues. "We should convey a true and clear image of the situation in the region away from lies broadcast by different mass media, particularly the U.S.," Jennings said.

The organization says that Jennings, Conscience International's Founder and President, led a delegation of "US Academics Against the War" to Baghdad in January, 2003, a few weeks prior to the US-UK invasion. Thirty-seven professors from twenty-eight US universities joined with academicians from several Iraqi Universities to warn against the humanitarian costs and political consequences of launching a preemptive war against Iraq. The organization quotes on its website U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower saying "Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

John Emiden, member of "Veterans for Peace" organization also described meeting with President al-Assad as positive and constructive. "We aspire for an advanced relations between Syria and the U.S... we seek to resolve problems through dialogue away from crisis or wars, and we think this is the responsibility of our government," Emiden added.

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