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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria willing to talk with US without preconditions |
| 2009-01-29 |
| (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his country is willing to conduct dialogue with the United States without any preconditions, the official SANA news agency reported Tuesday. Assad made the remarks in an interview with Lebanon's al-Manar TV, the mouthpiece of the Shiite Hezbollah movement. "If there are preconditions, there won't be dialogue, they know this thing," Assad was quoted as saying, adding that "but I think dialogue has started many weeks ago seriously through figures close to the U.S. administration." "As for dialogue, we have no preconditions, but in regards to reaching an approach through this dialogue, the only provision is to consider the Syrian interests," said the Syrian leader. Syria was under continuous isolation during the Bush administration, which demanded Damascus to stop support for Palestinian militant groups and the Lebanese Hezbollah, sever its ties with Iran, control its borders with Iraq and stem anti-U.S. infiltrations from crossing into Iraq. Assad also expressed cautious hope that U.S. President Barack Obama could bring peace settlement to the region instead of wars. "We hope for settlements, not wars after the departure of an administration which adopted primitive war as a policy," said Assad, noting that the Obama administration rejects this principle and talks about its inclination to peace which he said "are more positive." As for the indirect peace talks with Israel, the president said there was no prospects for an immediate resumption of such talks, which were suspended after Israel launched military offensive against the Gaza Strip late last month. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 See also TOPIX > ISRAEL: IRAN AND SYRIA DESIRE TO TAKE PLACE PLO WITH PALESTINIANS. Also on TOPIX > IRAN'S AHMADINEJAD WILL NOT TALK WITH OBAMA UNLESS US FIRST APOLOGIZES. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-01-29 21:38 |