Syrian Muslim brothers call on President al-Assad to open a new page

The Syrian Muslim Brothers group called on President Bashar al-Assad to work for a comprehensive national reconciliation in order to withstand the Israeli threats against Damascus and Beirut.

In a statement issued in Amman, the group's observer general Ali Sader Eddine al-Bayanouni denounced the threats made by the " terrorist" Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak against Syria and Lebanon. He called on President al-Assad " to take the Zionist threats against Syria and Lebanon seriously and to take all necessary measures to counter any possible aggression."

Al-Bayanouni added that to achieve this objective " we call on President Bashar once again to open a new page in the history of the homeland starting with opening public freedoms, releasing all political prisoners, permitting the return back of the exiled Syrians, ending the state of emergency in the country and canceling all 'special' laws which obstruct national unity."

Al-Bayanouni also called on President al-Assad to " strengthen the internal front in confrontation of these threats and to seek pan national reconciliation that avails all the country's citizens to practice their role in defending their right and carrying out their duty to defending it."

The Group, in particular calls for canceling law no 49 issued in 1980 which states imprisonment sentence for every one who belongs to the Muslim Brothers group in Syria.