In reply to a question about the Late President Hafez Al-Assad - the builder of the Modern Stable Syria - H. E. President Bashar Al-Assad disclosed that he has learned from the Late President to "Separate between the house and wok. Rarely would I have talked with my father about a political issue; you have to be the father in your house. The second point is not to be agitated by events; serenity and farsighted vision are among the most important things I have learned from President Hafez Al-Assad, May His Soul rest in peace."

In reply to other questions about Mideast Peace Process, President Bashar Al-Assad, in an interview released Monday, March, 9, 2009, by the United Arab Emirates Newspaper Al-Khaleej, underlined the importance of the Process tracks concomitance, "Had such a concomitance and coordination among the tracks of Peace existed since the start of the Process, as Syria has been calling for, things would have been changed. Unfortunately Arabs have dealt with the issue of peace separated and not united; every party of the peace talks followed its way. Thus, we have had the Palestinian track on one hand and the Syrian Lebanese track on the other. This has weakened our stances, now there is no coordination," noting that "there is a difference between peace itself and a peace treaty," reiterating that the prevailing of peace should be comprehensive including all the tracks, and that such a comprehensive peace, which solves, among other problems, the problem of more than a half million of the Palestinians present in Syria, would guarantee the establishment of the real genuine peace in the region, and not the merely signing of accords.

"The course of events during the latest few years has proved that the realization of peace is the vital interest for all. The basics for the process of peace are quite clear; that is the return of the Land on the bases of Madrid Terms of Reference, the principle of the Land for the Peace, Resolution 242, and the return of the Golan: the full return of the Land is the Principle not to be discussed." President Al-Assad reiterated.

In reply to a question related to the issue of Arab Solidarity, H. E. President Al-Assad said "The problem was not in the disagreement; it is illogical as to agree over every thing. The problem is how to manage the disagreement. We, as Arabs, have a bad management of differences. We do need the approach as to mange the differences" noting that are some causes upon which Arabs should never have differences and that a line should be drawn between personal top level relations among Arabs and the standing institutional relations among their countries.

"If you look at the history of Arab-Arab relations, you will find the absence of a real difference in the interests; it is only a difference in viewpoints," added H. E. President Al-Assad highly lauding, for example, the standing bilateral fraternal relations between Syria and the United Arab Emirates, which has been witnessing big strides during the last two years at all levels, especially as far as construction projects and exchange of visits.

Regarding the issue of the disputed islands between the United Arab Emirates and Iran, His Excellency said: "We, for decades of time, stand by the United Arab Emirates. Our stance is clear and, in line with the stance taken by the Emirates too, that the solution should be peaceful through the dialogue" reiterating the Syrian ever preparedness to play her role to this effect.

In reply to a question regarding the ongoing process of reform and modernization in Syria, His Excellency President Al-Assad said: "Reform is an all-out process including all of the political, cultural, economic and social levels. However, there are priorities in light of the more urgent needs for the citizens, and the speed of such reforms," asserting that Syria rejects whatever foreign interference in her internal affairs and that the process of Reform in Syria "has been influenced by the circumstances through which Syria has been passing," so that the priorities were rescheduled to be as the stability of Syria, the economy and the political reform; "For a hungry man, the priority is eat, our priorities are to secure health, school needs for our people and the like," citing, for example the freedom of speech for the citizens and the mushrooming private press in Syria. "We are moving ahead – on the way of reform- certainly we do not walk quickly, I am not that kind of persons who are rash," asserted President Al-Assad.

"The public sector is a very big one in Syria; we have supported the private sector; but never at the expense of the public one. A big part of the Syrian Economy depends upon the public sector. The public sector has its social role; we would never carry out any economic liberalization at the expense of the social role," added His Excellency, noting that problems in the Administration of the public sector exist, including corruption, losses, and spending uselessly. "

In reply to a question related to Iraq, President Al-Assad said: "As long as the occupation persists, there should never be peacefulness regardless of any administration- in the USA-. As to be confident that the political process in Iraq, we have to ask ourselves about the scope to be given to the Iraqis to run their affairs by themselves; if the answer were to be the more of authorities to the Iraqis enabling them to run their affairs, we could say that the matter would make us at peace of mind."

Regarding relations with Europe, President Al-Assad said: "The reports are developing positively. In fact, they have started slow in 2006 after Lebanon War. Now, they have been geared up especially after Gaza War, Such opening up, however, remains, within the frame of the talk about the role of Europe. We have to wait for the US Administration to define its policies, and we have, then, to wait so that Europe would define whether to be a united Europe or a group of countries."

In reply to a question related to the issue of Syria’s relations with the United States of America, H. E. President Bashar Al-Assad said: "We want to discuss all the issues of concern to the USA and to Syria, so that we could see where the points of convergence are, as well the points of divergence that we could dialogue over," pointing out that the Syrian-US talks tackle issues and that whether the Syrian relations with Iran were good or not, was but an issue related to the Syrian sovereignty, and is subject for no discussions.

In reply to a question regarding Women role, H. E. said: "As far as the legislative aspect, we across history have on problem in this regard. The woman is in every field; the last of which has been since 30 years in the Army. I think there is a problem for the Woman at the international level. It is how society views the Woman. We develop the status of the Woman, once we develop the society. The Woman could never be developed or advanced, when the Man were underdeveloped. An underdeveloped woman could not bring up an advanced generation. The issue is a comprehensive one. We have to develop the society in general, then, the Woman would be developed, as well as the Man together."

In a question related to his hobbies, H. E. said "I like history, but second to none as far as I am reading is related to scientific subjects. I am a man of science, who follow up on a daily basis scientific inventions. I do highly esteem the Arab Language, which is the Identity. Without the language, there is no identity. I do strongly support the process of Arabization and the use of the Arab Language in all fields."

As far as the forthcoming Parliamentary elections in Lebanon, His Excellency said: "Lebanon lives on accord; without accord, it explodes. It is the accord and not the election which brings stability in Lebanon. Whether the side which would win the elections would take Lebanon to accord or the opposite? If it were to take Lebanon to accord, I believe, this would be an important turning point creating the stability for Lebanon."

In reply to a question regarding the politicizing of Hariri tribunal, His Excellency said "You can not guarantee. We see that every thing in the world is far from objectivity; if the United Nations itself does not carry out its duties, along with its Security Council too, do we expect a small institution affiliated to it to work independently? There are no guarantees, and if there were to be any politicization, Lebanon would be the first to pay the price. The court was established for Lebanon. We hope that there were never to be any politicization; but there are no guarantees."