Syrian FM: Our region does not need alliances, rather just peace
Syria-Regional, Politics, 9/17/1998

Meetings of the 110th session of the Arab League (AL) council started in Cairo on Wednesday. The session was chaired by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, and was attended by AL Secretary-General Esmat Abdul Meguid and the heads of participating Arab delegations.

In an inaugural speech, al-Sharaa said the AL council is meeting while general Arab conditions are getting worse, especially toward main Arab issues. He added that the peace process, which was launched in Madrid in 1991, has lost credibility due to the current Israeli position which has changed the concept of peace.

He said that Israel seeks to have peace for itself only, while the Arabs have no security at all. If the Arabs resist the Israeli occupation, they are terrorists. The state terrorism run by Israel is at the essence of its doctrine for maintaining self-defense and is claimed by it as a self defense against terrorism, he said.

Such Israeli practices, he said, are "manifested in killing militants and assassinating international employees" including El-Kont Bernadout whose death anniversary is today.

Al-Sharaa said a double standard policy is pursued by Israel when it destroys the houses of the Palestinians under the pretext of not being licensed at a time when Israel gives licenses for building Jewish settlements in the occupied Arab territories, thereby violating the international law and UN resolutions. Al-Sharaa added that Israel's "greedy ambitions" are not a surprise for any Arab who read or who witnessed the history of the Arab - Israeli conflict.

Addressing the Iraeli - Turkish military allinace, al-Sharaa said, "But what had been made by the neighboring and Muslim country of military cooperation with Israel, showing no respect for the feelings of Arabs or Muslims nor to its vital interests, all ring the warning bell to every Arab and Muslim who refuses the policy of pacts and alliances, who is careful to maintain the region's security and stability."

Al-Sharaa said that, "Regrettably, the Turkish government has so far not reviewed its military cooperation with Israel despite calls sent by the recent Arab summit held in Cairo in 1996, and the appeals of the Islamic Conference Organization held in Tehran in 1997 and the Jerusalem Committee meeting held in Casablanca two months ago."

Al-Sharaa' added that what the region needs in effect is not the establishment of alliances, but a just and comprehensive peace based on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights to the June 4, 1967 border line and from south Lebanon and its western Bekaa according to UN Security Council resolutions 242, 338 and 425 and the land for peace formula as well as guaranteeing the national legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of their own independent state on their own native soil of Palestine.

Previous Stories:
  Syria denies contacts to rally against Turkish-Israeli alliance   (9/14/1998)
  President al-Assad postpones visit to Russia   (9/14/1998)
  Syria welcomes Jordan's refusal to join Turkish - Israeli military alliance   (9/9/1998)

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