al-Assad DIALOGUE

''There was a question about dialogue. We launched the dialogue in July, and we were supposed to start with the extensive dialogue and then move to the central dialogue. However, different forces exerted pressure to reverse the process and we agreed and finished the first phase of the dialogue without the contribution of all the opposition forces. Only part of them participated in the dialogue which was a very fruitful dialogue with a wide participation from the different institutions in the governorates.''

From H.E's Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)

''Two months ago it was suggested to start the third phase of the dialogue on the central level, and I can say that we, as a state, political party, or authority, are ready to start tomorrow and have no problem in that. However, some of the opposition forces are not ready. Part of them wants to conduct a secret dialogue for certain personal gains, as I mentioned earlier, and another part wants to wait and see how things go so that they determine where to go. But we will not wait for those forces to come and join in a celebratory dialogue which is conducted just to show off. We are now having dialogue with other forces which are ready to have a public dialogue and we are discussing the ideas which were raised earlier. What I wanted to clarify is that the delay in the dialogue is not caused by Syria.''

From H.E's Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)

''We have even accepted to have dialogue under the Arab initiative which was built on the idea of conducting dialogue with all the forces including hostile forces which committed crimes of terrorism in the seventies and the eighties of the last century. We said that we did not have a problem in conducting dialogue with these forces if they wanted to come to Syria, and we gave all the guarantees. In other words, we do not have any restrictions to dialogue and we will show full openness when see that everybody is ready for the dialogue and has a perspective on that dialogue. We are ready to start dialogue right away.''

From H.E's Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)

''At any rate, Syria now needs all its honest sons, regardless of their political attitudes. And when we talk about the coming phase, while we are still at the beginning of the New Year, some talk about the new Syria. But I say we do not have a ‘new Syria’ but a ‘renewed Syria’ because renewal is a continuous process and we are talking here about a new phase, rather than a new Syria. We have to understand the requirements of every phase; otherwise, all that we have said will be futile. What we have dealt with comprises procedures and regulations whose implementation does not succeed without the awareness needed for any process of development and transition. I can give an answer to this by saying that the previous ten months, with all their miseries, were very helpful in this regard as they proved to the Syrian people that they are capable with their awareness to present a model of a modern country which is stages and centuries ahead of other countries. I was talking about a hundred and fifty years, but actually we are capable of becoming one thousand years ahead of those countries which try to give us lessons about democracy, and I am confident that this future will come. Even so, the more we are capable of spreading the state awareness which we have witnessed, the better the situation. There is no doubt that despite the presence of an overall awareness in Syria, there are small holes of ignorance which might influence the general situation, and we do not want such holes and certain cases of ignorance to influence the process of development. We rather want to have a maximum level of positives and a minimum level of negatives.''

From H.E's Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)

''The national dialogue doesn't mean certain elites or the dialogue of the opposition with the loyalists or the authority, and it is not only limited to politics but it is a dialogue with all spectrum of the Syrian people on all issues of the homeland,''

From H.E's Damascus University Speech ( June 20, 2011)

''National Dialogue Commission's top priority is to consult with different parties to reach the best form which enables us to achieve our reform project within definite programs and dates… we can say that the national dialogue was the title of the current stage.''

From H.E's Damascus University Speech ( June 20, 2011)

''The urgent demands of people have been implemented before the beginning of the dialogue…we lifted Emergency Law and abolished State Security Court; we issued an organizing law for the right to peaceful demonstration. A committee was formed to set the draft bill for the new election law as another committee was formed to set legislations and the necessary mechanisms to combat corruption,''

From H.E's Damascus University Speech ( June 20, 2011)

"Dialogue is a very important process to which we have to give a chance. If we want to make Syria's future a success, it should be based on this dialogue, we can't always expect a vision coming from the state and the government as few dozens of people can't plan for dozens of millions."

From H.E's Damascus University Speech ( June 20, 2011)

"Therefore dialogue between us is always important for the region and the world. At the same time it is always a fruitful and productive dialogue. That is how the situation was today during my discussion with President Medvedev,"

From His Excellency's Press Conference with Russian President Medvedev, (May11, 2010)

"Dialogue and understanding among the countries of this region; recognition and respect of all countries interests is the best way to solve their problems and boost their position in the international arena,"

From H.E.'s Press Dinner Speech in honor of the Armenian President, (March 22,

“The world has started to hear today of a new discourse calling for dialogue based on reciprocal respect, which raises hope. However, the hoped for is to match words with serious work as to achieve a just solution for the causes of the Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus.”

From His Excellency’s Statements during Armenia Visit, (June 17, 2009)

“Austria supports the process of peace. Peace gives work opportunities, realizes prosperity. Development also helps the realization of peace alleviating tensions and causes of wars contributing to the combating of extremism. Let us employ the economy for the policy, realization of the peace, and for the fostering of the dialogue. The Economy is a dialogue; he who makes dialogue is the one reaching to the awareness enabling the capabilities to be translated into opportunities,”

From His Excellency’s Statements during Austria visit, (April 28, 2009)

“This is about the culture in Europe. How to open the mind to differentiate between the practice and the ideology. I am a Moslem, I could have the best ideology but the worst practice. So it is about me not about the ideology. This is the mistake of the person not the religion. You have good and you have bad. Like if you have a bad person, is it because he is Christian? It is because he is bad. That is it. Of course if you want to use any ideology as a mantle you can use it. You can say I am doing this because I am Muslim but you are doing this because you are a closed-minded person. They link this wrong practice with Islam. For example they say "Islamic terrorism"! There is nothing called "Islamic terrorism" but those terrorists use Islam as mantle so they link these two things to each other. Actually, a terrorist is a terrorist. Terrorism is terrorism. There is no relation between the two things.”

From His Excellency’s Interview with the Austrian Der Standard, (April, 18, 2009)

“It is about dialogue. If you do not have dialogue, if you do not understand differences between Islam and terrorism it is a big problem to the societies in the West. When you have the technology you created all these technologies in order to exchange information not only to export it. The problem in the West, especially in the United States more than Europe - Europe is more open anyway, they have more knowledge about what is happening in the world - is that at the end big and large part of the people do not import. Especially the media: it is the responsibility of the media to import the information and to import the analysis, because when you have different cultures you cannot have the same analysis, you have to translate the concept to their culture. This is when you need translation not only for language but for the culture itself.”

From His Excellency’s Interview with the Austrian Der Standard, (April, 18, 2009)

"The dialogue course wasn't adopted in a many Western countries who were adopting the isolation policy as well as the intimidation strategy. Some of them is even adopting a war policy," ; "It's just lately that new tendencies started to emerge,"

From His Excellency Interview given to Al-MANAR TV (September 4, 2008)

“We receive some news that more than a foreigner official saying that he/she would visit Syria; but asking about what to be offered in return for his/her coming! That is he/she should be given gains as to return the hero who was able to take the gains from Syria! To them we say that you come for dialogue, we have nothing to give save the dialogue, because we do not have awards to give for any body.”

From HE’s Second Presidential Term Inauguration Speech , ( July 17, 2007)

"We are with dialogue which respects our will and with relations which respect our sovereignty, we are with dialogue without preconditions... without abandoning rights and dignity… it is the dialogue away of dictations."

From HE’s 2007 Parliament Speech, ( May 15, 2007)

“The issue of isolating Syria has failed. The real thing is that the European isolation was under French- American pressure, the Europeans are now talking frankly that they will not accept this situation, they are enthusiastic for dialogue.”

From HE’s Interview with Dubai TV, (August 24, 2006)

"We always call them for dialogue, apart from the form of invitation whether in a letter or through a third party or press statements…we in most of our political discourse talk about necessity of dialogue and specifically with America. This is the important question: until now it seems unable to do so. For example, an American delegation came to us last week and asked that the meeting be kept away from the press…we agreed and the meeting took two hours…they said the administration listen to their opinions...maybe half of the delegation are from the administration…God knows…but the delegation comes under different names."

From HE’s Interview with Al Hayat Newspaper, (June 26, 2006)

“As far as we are concerned, we have a principle in dealing with problems. This principle is that any problem can be solved through dialogue. There is no other alternative. Our doors are always open, to all countries without exception, for dialogue on different issues. But this takes into account Syria’s interests. No dialogue can be conducted at the expense of our interests or at the interests of our causes and our conceptions. There is a dialogue at the bottom line, which we are trying to develop. On the other hand, we have wide reaching relations with other friendly countries in the world which know and understand our causes and know that Syria is right. We have never violated international law, we are an element of stability in the region. We have never tried to destabilize our region. These countries have to help change this unnatural situation. This is what we have been doing so far.”

From HE’s Interview with Russian TV, (December 12, 2005)

“Which countries are trying to impose sanctions? What will they achieve? Will they win? They won’t. They will lose. The Middle East is at the heart of the world and Syria is at the heart of the Middle East, and if the situation in Syria and Iraq is not good that will cause problems in the whole region, and the whole world will pay the price. Another question: what will they achieve? They will not, as I said at the beginning of the interview, be able to deal with the question of terrorism. Terrorism will spread. And they will not be able to achieve peace. This will also increase terrorism. There will be more poverty, and this will increase terrorism. Consequently, the whole world, together with Syria and the Middle East will pay the price. I think when we pose this question we will arrive at the logical answer: that the sanctions will not achieve anything and that the only solution is through political work and dialogue. There is no other option. It has been proven that war does not achieve positive results even when it is launched by a strong super power."

From HE’s Interview with Russian TV, (December 12, 2005)

“Syria considers that it has much to give within the framework of a vision of far reaching civilization the living features of which are apparent in every part of its rich land. When I visited your beautiful country two years ago, I carried with me many thoughts and hopes to the good of our two countries, our region and the world at large. The idea which was the closest to myself among all other ideas which I carried with me in visits to various states or in my meetings with personalities or foreign delegations, is the idea of dialogue. In fact, it was always my belief that dialogue is a continuous constructive process; a process that if we sever at any stage, we will have then to restart it from the beginning.”

From HE’s Speech Welcoming the Spanish King , ( October 21, 2003)

“My visit to Spain upon the invitation of your Majesty to inaugurate the exhibition of "The Glitter of Umayyads in Cordova" indeed was "expressive" gesture by your majesty aiming at pursuing the fruitful dialogue which was started by our ancestors more than 1000 years ago at the time when their bloods, ethnicities and cultures mixed together to form a wonderful civilization which brought about sublime principles that remain alive in our life. In my meetings with Spanish officials during that visit and in reviewing the good popular reactions to that visit, I became certain that this dialogue never was severed and that successive generations achieved big steps in this field despite the difficult circumstances which faced this relationship in different historic periods. Those difficult circumstances are not an abnormal state in the logic of relations between human beings. However, the ground which was established has restored the glitter of this relationship, a glitter which we perceive in the big convergence of emotions, characters and ideas.”

From HE’s Speech Welcoming the Spanish King , ( October 21, 2003)

“At the time when we together seek to reinforce dialogue between two cultures that many aspects of convergence bring them together, we notice that some of those who are essentially far away from the cultures of other peoples in this world, we are distancing themselves more and more from this dialogue, thus making the mere start of this dialogue even difficult. Few years ago hope was great in establishing more balanced relations between the peoples of the world, in respecting cultures of each other and in adherence of all of us to maintain, protect and develop the United Nations and its organs for the purpose of serving humanity, while we today notice as if the space of hope is narrowing and light is becoming dimmer.”

From HE’s Speech Welcoming the Spanish King , ( October 21, 2003)

“Of course the problem lies in the lack of communication, not communication in the technological meaning, but in the human meaning. That is what we need; we need to have more dialogue, more communication. I do not think we are going to start this communication now between the Syrians and the Italians because we have a history of two thousand years, a common history. You know that Syria gave the Roman Empire eight Popes and five emperors. When the Pope came to Damascus last May, I told him we were watching your pilgrimage.”

From HE’s Interview with the Italian Corriere Della Sera, (February 14, 2002)

“I am assuring you that Syria, the cradle of ancient civilizations and the country of steadfastness, which strives for peace, justice, and prosperity to prevail in our world, supports your activities in this world festival, and that the people of Syria which you all success in your works. Undoubtedly, your festival is an opportunity for intimate acquaintances among the Youths and Students, for exchanging their experience and for interaction in their thoughts.”

From HE’s Message to the 15th World Festival of Youths and Students, (August 8, 2001)