PRESIDENT ASSAD/ BAR ASSOCIATION SPEECH (January 21, 2006)
"Occupation Forces Started to Blame Others for Their Difficulties They Face in Iraq"
I start my speech…when I met with some foreign officials in Syria; they
criticized Syrian stances and accused her of being hardliner… They said that the
speech of President Bashar al-Assad was hardliner and the like…they accused
Syria’s stances of being radical, and criticized the speeches of President
Bashar al-Assad in their meetings with me. I used to tell them: you should not
figure out a picture of the situation through your meetings with us as
officials….on the contrary we are very quite…the street is boiling and we are
quiet. I’m happy about what I heard because they will have the opportunity now
on the TV screen to make a comparison with the difference between the stances of
man of the street and recognize that concerning official stance we stand behind,
not before, the stances of man of the street. Today I will be quiet, so that the
picture will be completely clear and the contrast obvious. Dear Sisters and
Brothers Members of the General Conference of the Arab Lawyers’ Ladies and
Gentlemen… It’s great happiness to meet you in this Conference, which you chose
to be held in Damascus expressing solidarity with your country Syria. It’s a
great opportunity to extend to you most sincere thanks for your kind initiative
for holding your Conference as an expression of solidarity with your brothers in
Syria, and to express my own appreciation for the honest efforts you exercise in
the field of work and struggle for the victory of right and in defense of the
Arab nation’s issue and protect her against the dangers that threaten her. It’s
natural the nation calls upon her sons at times of need…it’s a thing taken for
granted that the sons stick to their nation at hard times…but in addition to
that, this stage through which our nation passes requires a high degree of sense
of belonging and readiness to exert more sincere efforts at work coupled with
the purity of insight and the clear direction…it’s not a ceremonial to
underscore your important role… Dear Arab Lawyers, As you work for your nation’s
issues, I would like to focus on your exceptional role in this exceptional
stage…you are- - by virtue of your work and proficiency, by dealing with issues
of everyday life, by general activities and sticking to the issues of virtue and
justice - - closer than others to recognizing the nature of the accelerating
ever-changing events in today’s world in which the concepts of right and justice
turn into mere goods for bargaining and dealings on the existing international
scene, and in which conflicts of interests, powers, ideologies and ideas clash
with each other, and where concepts are sacrificed through a systematic course
to deface the main aspects of conflict. In such a situation, right and virtue
turn into null and void concepts, legitimate rights of peoples are denied for
the interest of those who seize them. My talk with you today is therefore of
particular meaning as it’s addressed to professional figures who enjoy huge
roles and responsibilities in the life of people and defense of their rights….to
lawyers who actually defend the nation and her rights…to those active and
important people who have their distinguished status in the lives of their
countries and societies. Dear Sisters and Brothers, We all follow up the current
events…all of us recognize these events and the surrounding circumstances as
well as their direct and indirect consequences are not the product of today but
rather date back to past decades…but they have intensified in recent years…where
the Arab people paid a dear price because of serious Western political projects
which are strange to this region…They paid the debts of others from their own
blood and their stability without having any interest or role in what is going
on. And while we thought that the political changes in the 1990’s would lead to
finding reasonable solutions to the chronic problems in our region as promised
by the New World Order and its dreams, we found out that these problems had
become more complicated and more confused…all pledges were only illusions or
daydreams…We call this the New World Disorder…it’s only a name but the real
content is the new world disorder because there is no order at all. At the same
time new problems, not less dangerous than those previous, had emerged…they had
rather been accumulated with them or resulted from them…new spots of tension,
not leas than the previous in terms of heat and inflammability, had came to
light and their consequences started to spread everywhere, causing problems to
our Arab people…and so the Palestinian issue moved nowhere…instead it retreated
step backward if we take into consideration the actual circumstances surrounding
our Palestinian people and the extent of repression Israel has been practicing
against this people…Israel has blocked all the roads to the Middle East peace
process, not only because of the rejection by Israeli successive governments to
respond to the peace requirement and continued denial of the Arab basic rights
but also because the current international situation and influential power are
not ready to push the peace process forward, as well as for the backing down of
the international community to meet their obligation towards the peace process
and stability in the region. Besides, Arab actual retreat of support to the
Palestinian issue as a result of continued pressures practiced for the benefit
of Israel had also played a role in that retreat. The Palestinian track was not
different from the Syrian-Lebanese track, added to that the Israeli violations
of Lebanese airspace and land before the eyes of a silent international
community. Of course the international community is silent in such cases…when it
comes to a simple statement that disturbs Israel a little bit …here the
international community turns into an active and influential society with a
tongue to speak and some times this tongue become fierce …but when it comes to a
statement by an Israeli rabbi accusing the Arabs of being serpents that must be
eliminated … or when US Congress says that there is an Arab country which must
be pond with a nuclear weapon to eliminate …then this society keeps silent. The
Iraqi issue emerged in our current political life to cause a political, pan-Arab
and moral earthquake that has created a new reality in the Middle East and whose
tragic features have begun to appear on the structure of the Arab society and
check up convections of people and their national and pan-Arab belonging. In
addition to that, the phenomena of terrorism has begun to spread painfully,
threatening the national and social structure of the countries in the region …
this is because of a set of factors, particularly regional, international wrong
and reckless policies towards the Arab nation’s heritage and issues … in
addition to the exploitation of this phenomena, namely terrorism, as a tool in
the hands of some powers which claim fighting terrorism in order to intimidate
and terrorize the others and attack their cultures, identities and intervene in
their internal affairs . Therefore, the developments of the Lebanese situation
had emerged as one of the consequences of the new international situation since
the issuing of resolution 1559 until the killing of Premier Hariri and the
formation of the investigation committee and the subsequent new international
resolutions, which seek to harm Syria and its stances. If some analysis said
that some of the consequences of events in Lebanon were meant to cover up the
failure of the occupation troops in Iraq as their project failed there in making
Iraq as its main gate- - and that’s right - - then it’s fully right to say that
this is meant to target Syria and Lebanon as part of an integrated project to
undermine the region’s identity and reshape it under different names that
finally meet Israel’s ambitions to dominate the region and its resources. It’s
wrong to use the idiom of targeting Syria, Syria and Lebanon as brother Sameh
Ashour said…not in defense of Syria against Lebanon … as they are both targeted
…but what is targeted is the Arabs and the Islamic nation …the targeted is wider
than that … but now we are talking about targeting the Arab nation… what is
happening now is part of a big conspiracy as Iraq is part of this conspiracy …
and as Gaza First also was … and as Oslo was …we don’t want to go back to the
older parts in order not to raise some sensitivities. Gaza First was a part that
failed since the first very day …it aimed at causing sedition among the
Palestinians.. Oslo was foiled by the Intifada at the beginning of its
eruption.. The Iraqi project is now failing before the eyes of the whole
world…the project of the Syrian-Palestinian part will also fail… but to foil
this part we have to deal with the elements as one project or one conspiracy and
subsequently we have to recognize that behind each conspiracy lies another
conspiracy and after each part there is another part…there is an interlink among
these parts. The issue is not Syria and Lebanon, it is bigger than that… we’re
not worried …we feel worry over the general situation, over the Arab nation…so
we have to know the whole dimensions of conspiracy so that we can deal with each
part of it. Of course they will say now that Arabs have always a psychological
complex which is the complex of conspiracy. If we go back to the past century
from Sykes-Picot to the occupation of Palestine in 1948 to the invasion of
Lebanon in 1982 and the occupation of Iraq and the intervening events and what
is happening now with Syria and Iraq… maybe they don’t consider these events as
a conspiracy… maybe they consider them as part of durable developments for the
region or part of charity actions and we have to send them a cable of gratitude.
As obvious in this context, Syria had been in the focal point of this event, not
only for its geographical site, political, social and human link to the main
conflict areas, but also for her role, status and history. Besides, those who
stand behind this conspiracy considered Syria as a main block to the
establishment of their aims. In light of that, Syria had to face successive
waves of challenges, and had to set out in each stance depending on her national
and pan-Arab responsibilities and her strategic interests and keenness on her
independence and sovereignty… but this was not accepted by some international
powers as well as by some Arab forces and figures who introduce themselves as
agents to those powers or as a tool to carry out their plots. There is a problem
with some big powers towards the Arabs and Moslems, and as I said with many or
maybe with most countries of the world. We recognize this problem continuously
through their statements and our meetings and discussions with them. They don’t
want us to commit to anything… their problem is not only the pan-Arabism or
Islam…they don’t want all those to commit to any principle or religious,
national or even economic doctrine. They want to turn the peoples and the world
into a set of computers in which they insert information and operation systems
and program them in their own way to use as they like whenever they want for
their own interests. And when we agree on this, then we are described as
nationalist, wise, realistic and democrats, otherwise, we are either terrorist
or terrorism sponsors… and this terrorism has names that change with the
circumstances and interests… we call this real fashion. We used to hear for
decades about Palestinian terrorism then they began to talk about Lebanese
terrorism during the civil war in Lebanon…today they are talking about Islamic
terrorism…don’t be astonished if they put soon a new idiom called sovereign
terrorism which is now actually being applied to countries which seek to
establish its sovereignty. In fact it is being applied, and it is only a matter
to time to find out the suitable idiom…this is not an exaggeration as there are
now dialogues in the United Nations and the Security Council corridors by some
known international powers to discuss the principle of the national sovereignty
to cancel this principle under different pretexts…human rights corrupt regimes,
corruption and other excuses they are searching for now. So this speech is real,
but they always present idioms and we as Arabs don’t go to the depth of these
idioms. As for Arab-Israeli peace issue, we announced our desire to establish
the just and comprehensive peace on the basis of UN resolutions, and on the
basis of these resolutions we committed ourselves to the Arab Peace Initiative
of Arab Summit in Beirut 2002 which nobody talks about any more today. This
initiative calls upon Israel to work for peace and confirms Arab readiness for
peace…but Israel responded to all this by ignoring peace initiatives and by more
massacres and assassinations against our people under unlimited support for the
United States and total silence by the other international powers. In addition
to the massacres committed by Israel, particularly after the Arab initiative, it
invaded Jenin and Nablus and the many systematic and premeditated
assassinations, the most dangerous of which was assassination of President
Yasser Arafat, and I am happy because you mentioned that before the eyes of the
world…no country dared to issue a statement or a stance towards this issues…as
if nothing had happened in this region. Brother colonel Muammer al-Qaddafi
presented an initiative about two months ago to the current presidency of the
Arab Summit represented by Algeria calling for forming an international
committee to investigate into this issue… Syria of course has immediately
supported this initiative in writing and I think that you as Arab lawyers and
specialized in legal issues can reach a technical detailed study on this issue
as a complete plan that could be presented to the next Arab Summit within months
so that it could be adopted by the summit and then an Arab united move could be
taken about it. On the Iraqi issue, we opposed the invasion of Iraq for reasons
relating to our principles, values and interests in as much as we will oppose
any intervention or invasion of any Arab land. We are committed to the principle
of non intervention in the Iraqi affairs and announced our desire to establish a
relationship based on more fraternity, integration and coordination…we express
readiness to offer help to Iraq when the Iraqi people ask us to do so. We also
underscored Iraq unity, stability and necessity of participation of all Iraqi
people in the political process…in addition to withdrawal of foreign troops from
their lands. I stress today that all these aims, particularly the unity of the
Iraqi land, cannot be established unless they depend on a future solution
represented by the Arabism of Iraq…I also stress that the future of the whole
region depend on this principle. There are many scenarios and ideas being
discussed and presented regarding the issue of Iraq, but all these scenarios
depend on the sectarian principle…if we take an extremist idea and its contrast
in extremism and take a third idea in middle then all of them will lead to the
disintegration and destruction of Iraq as long as they rely on the sectarian
basis. In return, if we take all these probabilities on the basis of Iraq
Arabism, then the result will be for sure the stability of Iraq and maintaining
its territorial integrity. The word of Arabism of Iraq is not chauvinist or
ethnic. Arabism is a civilized meaning as it doesn’t negate ethnics, cultures or
languages or any of the components of the Arab society, which exists in now in
this hall. It’s the natural history of our region, and, subsequently, no group
or segment or faction in this Arab world must feel sensitive over this
presentation or this idiom as it’s the only and strongest melting point for all
these rich components…it’s rich through the presence of Arabism and poor and
harmful without it. We wish that all Arab brothers on all levels whether in
government office, media men or intellectuals to shun themselves from the
quagmire of sectarian idioms presented now in Iraq because we want to restore to
Iraq its Arabism not to be drawn by some Iraqis into the sectarian quagmire
otherwise we all will drown in one ship. In the presence of these events and
tendencies we were aware of the size of negative consequences of the Iraqi
situation which would affect Syria and the region in general…as a result of
internal and regional interactions resulting from the invasion…this has appeared
obviously over the past three years in a way that gave credibility to our
warnings before the invasion…and instead of admitting the mistakes, occupation
forces started to blame the others for their difficulties they face in Iraq…they
began to settle other accounts regarding stance which reject policies of
hegemony whenever they are…and today after years of search for the lost victory
in Iraq they only found unborn victory and unlimited rejection. As for the
Lebanese issue, the starting point was the issuance of the resolution 1559 which
aimed at making a radical shift in the political equation in Lebanon and the
region through targeting the Lebanese national resistance and the
Syrian-Lebanese relations as well as destabilizing Lebanon. The question here is
why this is happening now ? Why Syria and Lebanon? Because the Arab society in
all its segments has a strong belief in the doctrine of resistance which was the
basis for Lebanon’s steadfastness. The relation of struggle between Syria and
Lebanon is the main political, moral and human supporter of this doctrine which
had established its first success by foiling 17 May Agreement, and then the
liberation of Lebanese territories in 2000, and which continued through the
steadfastness of Intifafda in Palestine and through rejection of Iraq
occupation…they set out to eradicate this doctrine.. even if they were late…but
they were too late. Of course the principle of resistance is not only carrying
weapons as some believe… it is the commitment to doctrine, principles, interests
and values…all these things for us mean accepted and adopted resistance…but for
them it is terrorism and rejected. Despite our reservations on the resolution
1559 and our recognition of its direct and indirect motives, we responded to it
and carried out our commitment where the Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon…and
the assassination of Premier Hariri came as part of suspicious plot to cause an
overall upside down…not only in Lebanon but in the political situation in the
region in general, especially the relation between the two countries and
peoples. Incidents, assassinations, and media escalation came successively after
that to target security and accord as well as the role of Syria and status
amidst feverish campaigns to distort Syria’s image and deface her stances as
well as to poison the atmospheres between the two brotherly peoples through
directly accusing Syria in a way to serve interests, reactions and foreign
suspicious relations. We choose self-restraint in Syria and refused to be drawn
into the stances the others want us to be in because what we have built
throughout decades by common blood of the two Syrian and Lebanese peoples can’t
be lost in passing reactions and emotions. But it seemed obvious that some
people didn’t want things to go in its natural pathway, particularly after the
issuance of resolution 1559 and the formation of the international investigation
committee which we were careful to cooperate with and facilitate its mission out
of our respect for the national law and sovereignty. And despite the defects of
the two reports by the committee and the unfair position towards Syria, we
announced willingness to cooperate with the commission because we have always
been with the international legitimacy and because impartial and independent
investigation will be for sure in the interest of Syria. But it turned out that
some Lebanese forces and international circles didn’t want the investigation to
reach its destination in an objective and honest way as long as it will clear
Syria. They were obviously willing to harm Syria and follow up on a mechanism of
investigation to proof a ready made accusations and even before the blood dries
up. We in Syria are very clear about the investigation: we are with the
investigation into assassination of Premier Hariri to reveal the culprit or
culprits and will continue cooperation with investigation now and in the future
to reveal the truth on the basis of sovereignty and national interest, and as I
said Syria’s interest meets with the interest of investigation when the latter
is impartial. If some body believes that politicizing the investigation and
diverting it off its natural course could enforce Syria to do what they want
then they are wasting their time and the suitable opportunity to establish
stability in the region as well, subsequently negatively reflect on them. As for
their using of some deftest or traitors as witnesses, this will not change
Syria’s stances but rather change their already false images and bringing them
nearer to their real images before the Arab peoples and the world. When we said
that investigation is built on the national sovereignty, this means that we put
limits… this speech should be obvious and when we say national sovereignty this
means national interest. We presented full cooperation as well… this means
limits of the full cooperation is impartiality of investigation… full
cooperation is compatible to national sovereignty. What they talks about
unlimited cooperation, this means simply that we can cooperate against out
national interest and taking the investigation out of its legal limits and into
the political framework. And as you know politics has no regulations: They do
anything especially through the Security Council… Legally, Logically… legitimate
no matter. It’s in their hand to take whatever resolutions. They have formed a
Committee for convection not for investigation, but there is always a national
framework, which concerns the senior official and the citizen each in his/her
position. The national sovereignty is the highest not the Security Council or
other…. We as nationalists have to set out in our cooperation on the basis of
national sovereignty and dignity. This is out of question for us, and whoever
accepts that something will be higher than national sovereignty in any country
or place in the world has to change his/her citizenship and replace it with an
international citizenship given by the United Nations, and then we have to annul
many concepts like sacrifice for the nation and the sacred country. The issue of
national sovereignty should not abandoned even if it requires that we will be
ready to fight for our country… we will be ready for this thing, and we stress
that all these attempts will fail. Syria will remain the big brother who stands
by the national Lebanon whenever it needed that. I’m not worried about the
Lebanese issue at all and about relations between Syria and Lebanon despite the
many wounds because what happens is something passing. There are in Lebanon
those who heal the wounds and so in Syria continuously. I’m also not worried
about the relations between the Lebanese despite many defects. Sometimes worry
comes from some Lebanese officials who see their strength and influence through
the destruction of Lebanon or through their political or financial interest. We
are with any Arab initiative to improve the relations between all Arab
countries. Syria was the first party who initiated to improve relations with
Lebanon. Sudan moved between Syria and Lebanon with some ideas, and we said from
the beginning that there is no problem… we are open to all ideas that could be
presented. There was no response to Sudanese initiative, so they moved with
Egypt and Saudi Arabia and as far as I know with the presidency of the Arab
Summit and the Arab League, but there was no response from some Lebanese
officials. There are few groups in Lebanon, who reject Syria and the Arab
solution, but they are few and temporal and couldn’t represent all Lebanon, and
the situation can’t continue this way. We put some ideas with Saudi Arabia for
discussion but they were not final. There were leak of some ideas like
demarcation of borders. We didn’t propose this at all, and we don’t think there
is a border problem between Syria and Lebanon…. They propose it and they refuse
it. Many people don’t know the issue of Shebaa Farms. They presented the issue
of borders to be demarcated several months ago, and we sent them an official
answer in writing that we’re ready to demarcate the borders. Shebaa Farms is
smaller than this complex in which we are meeting now. The demarcation needs two
things legal when one of the countries on both border proves property of these
lands, in this case, it goes to the UN and register it, the second is technical
relating to engineering works to define border points definitely and finally.
Israel now occupies these lands, namely neither Syria nor Lebanon exist there.
What is the point of demarcation now? It’s only an Israeli demand… and the work
is only against the resistance. It doesn’t harm or benefit neither Syria nor
Lebanon. It harms the resistance and serves Israel... so they refused to start
demarcating the borders from the north. Most of the Lebanese on the level of
citizens are with Syria… even on the political level the most part is with
Syria, but this part is neglected because of the media. Dear sisters and
brother, We work to enhance relations with everybody and extend bridges with all
countries of the world in spite of pressures some of them are exposed to.
Unfortunately, so Arab media participated in the media campaign against Arabs
through spreading the culture of disappointment and defeat and exaggerating the
idea that the Arabs are weak and unable to do anything. We in Syria are familiar
with such campaigns for decades and we know their aims, and subsequently they
will only enhance our steadfastness. In international standards we are a small
country in terms of area and maybe population etc… but in the national
standards, no one can by stronger than us. Let us give an example, Lebanon is a
small country and emerged from civil war and all the international circumstances
were against the liberation of the country. But this was done against the will
of those who opposed this. There is also the Palestinian Intifada, which has
been steadfast for the fifth successive year despite all difficult conditions.
Iraq today is the obvious example before us. I think the Iraqi citizen today
enjoys freedom more than the American soldier does. The occupation forces are
now in need for the Iraqi people to take them out of their dilemma. Suddenly a
foreign official appears in Iraq where he/she makes furry statements and then
escapes… at the beginning they tried to raise the morale of their followers and
troops, but every time thinks went so badly they were forced to raise the
morale. Such farce has now been to Lebanon as you see… this is good because this
means surely that the current, which calls the internationalization, is in
dilemma. As for the internal level, we have been following up our reform program
on all the levels. We are putting on the final touches on the 10th Five-Year
plan, which is a promising plan for economic, monetary and administrative
reforms, as well as for improving the services and the living standards of the
citizens. On the political level work is underway on several projects that boost
popular contributions and help enrich democratic life relating to the party,
electoral and local administration laws. We also work to consolidate
institutional work, the supremacy of the law and independence of judicial
system… this will activate the political life and enrich our national work and
tackle many negative aspects we face. We have always confirmed that reform
begins and depends on our national needs…we vehemently reject any reform imposed
from outside under any title of justification. Our war is very long… it is a war
for identity. We reject this war, which has been imposed on us … we are with the
dialogue of civilizations and cultures. Our battles are cultural and moral, and
their tools are of political, military, economic and media nature. You have
convened your conference in Syria to express solidarity with her people in face
pressures and support to her stances. Everybody knows that Syria is strong and
will continue to be so God’s Will. But we have to know that there is strong
country without steadfast people. Allow mw to avail this opportunity to extend
my greetings to the Syrian Arab people because they embody all meanings of
dignity and honor. Blessed by your efforts and the Arab Nation.
Thank you all.
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