أهلا بكم في الموقع الرسمي لسفارة الجمهورية العربية السورية في ماليزيا
أهلا بكم في الموقع الرسمي لسفارة الجمهورية العربية السورية في ماليزيا
Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad said that the war on terrorism
will only end when the last terrorist in Syria is eliminated, affirming that
significant strides have been made in the war on terror by eliminating the main
hotbeds of Daesh (ISIS).
In a statement to journalists on Monday after a meeting with a Russian
official and economic delegation headed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Rogozin, President al-Assad said that Syrian-Russian relations date back to
more than six decades, and they had always emphasized the political aspect, but
in the current circumstances of war emphasis focused more on the political and
military aspects, which means that economic relations did not receive the due
attention during past decades.
He said that during the previous visit by Rogozin, a number of
priorities for improving economic relations have been set, and in the time
between these two visits there have been achievements on the ground as a number
of Russian companies started work on a number of projects, just as the security
situation improved and the Syrian economy started to move forward.
“This visit is an opportunity to promote existing projects and
the sectors in which we started work, and at the same time expanding towards
new sectors that we had not set as priorities two years ago. So, the delegation
today is large and diverse and covers various fields, and very important
projects have been proposed for Russian investments in Syria, particularly
since we started the reconstruction stage now. At the same time, we talked
about heading east in our economic and cultural relations and other fields, and
of course when we talking about heading east, Russia is one of the most
important countries in it,” President al-Assad said.
His Excellency said that the main difference between the Geneva
conference and the Sochi conference that is being worked on with the Russian
friends is based on two things: first, the quality of figures or sides
participating in it, as in Geneva the people with whom negotiations are held do
not represent the Syrian people, and sometimes they don’t even represent
themselves. Second, in Sochi there are clear issues related to the constitution
and what comes after it such as elections, adding that the Sochi conference
will discuss everything as there are no limits to the subjects it will tackle.
“With that, I’m talking about things that are still preliminary,
so the difference between them cannot be specified until after matters are
completed, but we certainly believe that anything is better than Geneva,
because Geneva hasn’t achieved anything after three years,” he added.
Regarding talk about the United Nations playing a role in
parliamentary elections, President al-Assad said that this issue will be
tackled at Sochi where the constitution will be discussed in terms of it being
suitable or if it needs amendments or a new constitution, noting that when
there are constitutional amendments, it is natural to have elections.
“The issue of international supervision has been proposed, and
specifically a UN role has been proposed in discussions with us by various
sides. We said that Syria is a founding member of the United Nations, and any
UN role in the upcoming elections must be based on the UN Charter which
emphasizes Syria’s sovereignty and the Syrian people’s decision. So, we’re not
worried about any UN role, and we can say that we welcome any UN role as long
as it respects Syrian sovereignty, as anything that impinges on this sovereignty
is rejected. This should be obvious today, later, and at any time,” His
Excellency said.
In response to a question about the actions of Kurds in the
eastern area and their cooperation with the Americans, President al-Assad said
that it’s not right to say that a Syrian group – whether ethnic or religious –
has a uniform characteristic, because this makes no sense since all groups are
diverse, and the various groups in Syria have the good and the bad, so talking
about “Kurds” is imprecise as there are various groups in the eastern region
working with foreign sides, specifically the Americans.
“This isn’t me saying that; they declare that they work under
cover of the American warplanes and in coordination with them. They marketed
and published photos and videos about this issue. All those who work under the
command of any foreign country in their own country and against their army and
people are traitors, quite simply, regardless of their names, and that is our
evaluation of the groups that work for the Americans in Syria,” the President
said.
He stressed that the war on terrorism isn’t over yet; it is
still ongoing, but significant strides have been made in it by eliminating the
main hotbeds of Daesh, which constitutes a significant victory.
President al-Assad noted that the world is focusing on Daesh
alone in order to distract attention from the fact that terrorism – represented
mainly by Jabhat al-Nusra – still exist and is supported by the West, so Daesh
doesn’t represent the entirety of terrorism; it is just a part of it. He
asserted that war on terrorism will only end when the last terrorist in Syria
is eliminated, at which point there can be realistic talk of victory.
Regarding de Mistura and France holding the Syrian Arab Republic
delegation responsible for the lack of progress in the most recent round of
Geneva talks, the President said that it’s natural for them to do so because
they don’t want to hold groups that work for them responsible, adding that
these comments by France or other Western countries prove that those groups
work for them, and not for the sake of Syria’s interests.
“Of course for us we can’t even hold these groups responsible
for the failure of Geneva for a very simple reason: they are vocal groups that
work for dollars, meaning that if you give them a dollar, they will make a
sound, and if you give them ten dollars, they will make various tunes of sounds
according to how much dollars you give them,” His Excellency said.
Regarding France, President al-Assad said “Since the beginning,
France has been the spearhead of supporting terrorism in Syria. France’s hands
are covered in Syrian blood and it has no right to evaluate any peace
conference. Those who support terrorism do not have the right to talk about
peace, let alone the right to interfere in the Syrian affairs. All there
statements mean nothing to us and have no value.”
