{"id":5939,"date":"2010-03-25T08:48:27","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T08:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=5939"},"modified":"2010-03-25T22:29:28","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T22:29:28","slug":"assad-interview-on-al-manar-24-march-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/assad-interview-on-al-manar-24-march-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Assad Interview on al-Manar – 24 March 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In this interview with Hizbullah’s TV station (copied below), President Assad invokes his speech of November 10 2005 given at the University of Damascus, in which he argued that Syria and the region had only two choices: resistance or chaos. “Resistance is the least costly option,” he explained. At the time, the Mehlis investigation into the Hariri murder was at its climax and President Bush and the UN security council were pressuring Damascus to make Syrian officials available to Mehlis’ unrestricted interrogation. Syria refused.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the UN and Syria struck a deal to send five officials – none from the president’s family – to Vienna for interviews. The sensational accusations of Syrian culpability in the murder made by Mehlis quickly fell apart when his main witnesses recanted; they claimed to have been pressured or paid to provide false testimony to Mehlis. The mishandling of the investigation led to Mehlis’ replacement by more sober and less adventurous investigators. The four Lebanese generals and security officials that Mehlis arrested have all been released. No charges were ever brought against them.<\/p>\n

Today Syria faces none of the pressure it did in 2005. Obama’s policies have been good for Syria – not because engagement has been warm or because Obama’s promises to end the Arab-Israeli conflict have been fulfilled – they have not; Syria has thrived because the US has largely ignored it — a big improvement over the Bush administration, which wrongly believed that Assad was weak and could be brow beaten into complying with American’s pro-Israel policies. Syria is no longer depicted as the “low hanging fruit,” of the region, rather, it is referred to as a “central player.” Assad receives weekly visits from Western dignitaries and leading statesmen.<\/p>\n

All the same, the great expectations that Obama inspired as a candidate have not been fulfilled. The newly designated Ambassador to Syria gave uninspiring testimony to congress last week in which he underlined the many policy differences separating Syria and the US, the biggest of which was Hizbullah and Syria’s support for groups that resist Israel’s illegal occupation of Arab land. He argued that “the United States wants a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East,” but Syria is positioned to “play the spoiler” because it continues to support terrorists. Much of his testimony was boilerplate and probably necessary for the confirmation process in the face of a very pro-Israel congress. All the same, it underlines how little US policy has changed under Obama. After watching Obama’s capitulation to Israel and hearing congress’ fawning support for Netanyahu’s building campaign in East Jerusalem, no one in the Middle East believe that Washington is genuinely interested in “a just and comprehensive peace.” To reiterate these tired and righteous phrases is simply to grand stand in front a world population that has grown inured to hypocrisy and empty rhetoric.<\/p>\n

The context that is most important for understanding Assad’s speech is the state of US-Israeli relations. The Biden visit and\u00a0 AIPAC meeting in Washington this week revealed a triumphant and expansionist Netanyahu who is unchastened by Obama’s tentative efforts to show disapproval of Israel’s building campaign in East Jerusalem or the West Bank. Netanyahu proved that he has the US congress on his side. The peace process is going no where. Assad simply recognized this. He was polite about both the Obama administration and the ambassador designate. His statement that resistance is being forced on Syria is simply an expression of basic reality.<\/p>\n

Syria had hoped that the US would be able to bring Israel to the negotiating table and exert some pressure on it to disgorge the Golan. Assad has given every assurance that Syria is willing to make generous security and water guarantees to Israel in exchange for its land. Israel is not interested. The status quo has been working fine for Israelis, and the US is unable or unwilling to alter that status quo.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Israel has successfully diverted America’s and the world’s attention from the Arab-Israeli conflict, where it should be, to Iran. For some largely inexplicable reason, Washington has decided that Iran is its greatest foreign policy challenge and a risk to world peace that must be stopped. While the fear of Iran is being ginned up, the Arab-Israeli conflict, a problem that the US can actually do something about, will be set aside and ignored.<\/p>\n

With this speech, Assad is recognizing this state of affairs. It means that his country will likely be pushed into greater conflict with Israel and the US. In a showdown, he will stand with Iran. The Arab League will be discussing the withdrawal of the Arab Peace Initiative<\/a> during its meeting in Libya this weekend. What else can the Arabs do? The vast majority of Arabs are glad that Syria is keeping the pilot light of Arab resistance lit.<\/p>\n

— the speech follows —<\/strong><\/p>\n

Al-Manar\u2019s Interview with Syrian President Bashar Assad<\/a>
\n24\/03\/2010 Al-Manar\u2019s Interview with Syrian President Bashar Assad
\nInterview conducted by Amr Nassif<\/p>\n

Introduction: … Mr. President welcome to Al-Manar Television.<\/p>\n

AL-ASSAD Welcome to Syria.<\/p>\n

Q: To start with Mr. President, Syria went through lots of crises during the last few years by adopting a policy of challenge and steadfastness, knowing that such policy could have caused Syria to pay heavy prices. I wanted to ask you about the margin of “adventure” in the Syrian decision to face the challenge.<\/p>\n

AL-ASSAD There are two kinds of adventures; one that is imposed and another that is by choice. As Syrians, we’re not adventurers but we live in the Middle East which is historically a complicated region. This region in particular has been a coveted spot for thousands of years, because it\u2019s the center of the world where strategic interests underlie. Whether you wanted to make a policy or a war, in either case it\u2019s an adventure. But as I have just said, it’s an imposed adventure. However, we have to differentiate between adventure and gambling. When we assume that the best and easiest solution is to put our future and capabilities in the hands of the big powers with the belief that they will resolve our problems, this is gambling. From our previous experience, the big powers always complicate the problems for various reasons that are in most cases out of evil intent. But even if we assume good intentions, problems will get complicated because they do not belong to this region. We didn’t accept to be part of a gamble that would put Syria, its policies, and its interests in a foreign scheme. This is what happened recently when the project of the New Middle East was raised. This project included Iraq and Lebanon, and Syria was supposed to be part of it. They sought to lure it into this project, but it turned it down. Thus, Syria had to pay a price. This is consistent with a speech I made in 2005<\/a>, when I said that the price of resistance was less than the price of chaos, and that gambling will lead to chaos and therefore to the ultimate price. Between the high price and the ultimate price, we will choose the first, especially when there is no such thing as a low price or no price at all.<\/p>\n

Q: Mr. President, you stressed on several occasions that Syria was against the policy bargains and deals. The problem is that the other side, and I mean the United States, is a regime that only believes in pressure and deals. Yet, the relation between the US and Syria is ameliorating. How did you reach this equation of committing not make deals with a party that only acknowledges deals?<\/p>\n

AL-ASSAD At the end, they failed. I’m not only talking about the United States but all the supporters of the previous scheme, supposing that the creator of this scheme was (US former President George W.) Bush. We don’t want to combine between the former and current US administrations. Of course, there are differences. Therefore, when we talk about the United States, some think that the same project is still ongoing. This is not true. At that time, the former United States administration, Israel alongside some European states including France, the UK, and other allies in Europe, the world, and the region, they all worked to complete this project. But they failed and they had to start searching for a new way to deal with the realities on the ground. Personally, I think they have started to learn lessons but they haven’t necessarily learned the lessons. Even if they have learned the lessons, nothing necessitates that the lesson they have learned still remains, because when new people come to power, they might not read the history and therefore, make the same mistakes. That’s why this mistake is made continuously.<\/p>\n

But, of course, we’re committed to specific principles that represent our interests and convictions and we won’t abandon them. The way we deal with this is by explaining facts and realities, but at a certain stage, they adopted a policy of terminology such as terrorism, democracy, good and evil. They created a whole world for us, and unfortunately, or maybe out of good luck, they fell in their own trap and lived in a world of illusion. However, our approach was more realistic. So now, they want to join this world regardless of whether there are difference in our points of views or not.<\/p>\n

Q: When you distinguished between the Bush administration and Obama\u2019s, was it because you don’t want to burden Obama\u2019s shoulders with Bush\u2019s mistakes, or you really believe they are different?<\/p>\n

AL-ASSAD No, there are clear differences, first in the proposals reflected in their speeches and second, we don\u2019t hear dictations anymore. We have different viewpoints, this is normal, but we don\u2019t hear dictations anymore. We can\u2019t say yet that there exist results of an American policy, but there are some institutions in the US that don\u2019t want President Obama to succeed for one reason or another. That’s why we have to differentiate between the two men in order for us to be objective.<\/p>\n

Q: Allow me to describe the speech of the US Ambassador to Syria Steven Ford before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on March 16, 2010 as very severe. He said that he was not a prize for Syria and that Syria hasn’t changed as it remains a source of concern for Washington. He also spoke about the necessity to exert direct pressure on your political decisions and talked about some mistakes in Syria’s calculations with Hezbollah. Perhaps the most dangerous thing he talked about was the danger of Syria being dragged into a confrontation with Israel, even unintentionally. How do you describe these words?<\/p>\n

AL-ASSAD He said so in Congress and before becoming Ambassador. When he comes to Syria to present his credentials and become Ambassador, we can deal with all these words through our known stances. I don’t have to explain these stances because they are announced. But at the same time, I can say that any Ambassador represents his country\u2019s policy. A fine Ambassador with a bad policy is worthless. The result will not be good.<\/p>\n

However, a good policy could impose upon a bad Ambassador to achieve good results for the best interests of both countries. Government policies determine policies and their outcome, not an Ambassador and certainly not his speeches. Still, I\u2019m not in a position to comment on an Ambassador\u2019s speech. When he arrives, we will comment on any stance he takes in the framework of his new mission here. With regards to conviction, he has the right to convince and so do we.<\/p>\n

Q: Let’s look at the issue of bargaining from another perspective. Perhaps, there are no deals but some talk about prices. Can we say that one of the prices that Syria paid to ameliorate its relations with the West and the Arabs was accepting diplomatic relations with Lebanon and opening embassies especially that some Lebanese sides actually thanked France for the role it played in this issue. Is this a price?<\/p>\n

AL-ASSAD Some sides insist they have achieved some of their policies in the past five years. In fact, they haven\u2019t achieved anything. They only entered Lebanon into mazes. I’m not specifying these sides, I’m talking in general. Now, these powers want to convince others that they have achieved something, anything even an embassy. I actually proposed the embassy in 2005. It was not a Lebanese proposal. None of our former or future allies had suggested it before I did. I raised the issue in a meeting for the higher Lebanese-Syrian joint committee in the presence of Speaker Nabih Berri, then President Emil Lahoud and then PM Omar Karameh. But when the circumstances in Lebanon took a negative turn, we decided to disregard the issue. But I can say that the embassy proposal was Syrian. In all cases, if there was no Syrian conviction, the embassies couldn’t have been established. Everyone knows that when we feel a move is imposed on us or is the result of an attempt of interference, we would immediately reject it. The proof for these forces claiming that their policies, or foreign pressure, have established the embassy, we say that there is a much more important example.<\/p>\n

Few countries have raised the issue of the embassies, but a lot of states are now raising the issue of demarcating borders. Our response has always been a clear no. This is a Lebanese-Syrian matter that should be resolved between the two countries. But when a request is made from outside these two countries, we do not act. Now, with the visit of PM Saad Hariri to Syria, we\u2019ve started discussing the issue again. Before that, it was closed since there were no relations between the Syrian and the Lebanese governments. Today we are building these ties. But I’m talking about the principle. If they succeed in imposing the demarcation of the border through foreign pressure, they would be right. But if they fail, the world ought not to believe them.<\/p>\n

Q: There’s another issue that some Lebanese always raise when talking about the Lebanese-Syrian relations. It’s the Syrian refusal to provide Lebanon with an official document stating that the Shebaa Farms is Lebanese. They wonder why this Syrian \u201cobstinacy?\u201d<\/p>\n

AL-ASSAD It’s simply because you can’t give a document that you don’t have. There are some measures that should be adopted to obtain such document. I mean legal and judicial measures that specify the ownership of properties, which country was given these properties before and after Independence, Lebanon or Syria? When these measures are finalized, we start demarcating the border. But giving this document for political reasons doesn’t seem to be rational.<\/p>\n

More to follow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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