Assad: Golan withdrawal before peace
In interview with The New Yorker, Syrian president says, 'You start with the land; you do not start with peace'; claims Israel lacks 'old-generation politicians like Rabin'
"(The Israelis) are like children fighting each other, messing with the country; they do not know what to do," Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published by The New Yorker this week.
"What, I said, is the difference between peace and a peace treaty? Peace treaty is what you sign, but peace is when you have normal relations. So, you start with a peace treaty in order to achieve peace…. If they say you can have the entire Golan back, we will have a peace treaty. But they cannot expect me to give them the peace they expect…. You start with the land; you do not start with peace," Assad said in the interview.
"I have half a million Palestinians and they have been living here for three generations now. So, if you do not find a solution for them, then what peace you are talking about? He added.
What, I said, is the difference between peace and a peace treaty? Peace treaty is what you sign, but peace is when you have normal relations. So, you start with a peace treaty in order to achieve peace…. If they say you can have the entire Golan back, we will have a peace treaty. But they cannot expect me to give them the peace they expect…. You start with the land; you do not start with peace.
The Syrian leader told The New Yorker, "You need a special dictionary for their (Israel's) terms…. They do not have any of the old generation who used to know what politics means, like (slain prime minister Yitzhak) Rabin and the others. That is why I said they are like children fighting each other, messing with the country; they do not know what to do."
'Accept this Iranian proposal'
Focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Assad said, "(The Israelis) wanted to destroy Hamas in the war (in Gaza) and make Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) strong in the West Bank. Actually it is a police state, and they weakened Abu Mazen and made Hamas stronger. Now they wanted to destroy Hamas. But what is the substitute for Hamas? It is Al Qaeda, and they do not have a leader to talk to, to talk about anything. They are not ready to make dialogue. They (Al Qaeda) only want to die in the field."
Addressing the West's nuclear standoff with Iran, the Syrian president said, "Imposing sanctions (on Iran) is a problem because they will not stop the program and they will accelerate it if you are suspicious. They can make problems to the Americans more than the other way around.
"If I am (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, I will not give all the uranium because I do not have a guarantee (in response to American and European insistence that most of Iran’s low-enriched uranium be sent abroad for further enrichment to make it usable for a research reactor, but not for a bomb)…. So, the only solution is that they can send you part and you send it back enriched, and then they send another part…. The only advice I can give to (US President Barack) Obama: accept this Iranian proposal because this is very good and very realistic."
On Thursday Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Assad that in an event of war with Israel, "not only will you lose the war, you and your family will no longer be in power."
Earlier this week Assad accused Israel of “pushing the region towards war”. During a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos in Damascus, Assad said that the Jewish state "is not serious about achieving peace”.
Assad spoke just hours after his foreign minister, Walid Moallem, said that "Israel knows that if it declares war on Syria, such a war will reach its cities as well."
