Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad: Arab Peace Initiative Is As Good As Dead; Israel - More Dangerous Version of Nazism

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 16, 2009.

Bashar Al-Assad: This enemy, which was founded on massacres, consolidated its existence by means of plunder and destruction, and delineated its future on the basis of genocide, is an enemy that speaks only the language of blood, and therefore, it understands nothing but the language of blood. The Arab blood that has been spilled since the creation of Israel was deemed by its shedders to be the essential fuel for their machine in the various stages of creating a pure Jewish state, which cannot be attained without completing the process of driving the non-Jews out of Palestine or annihilating those who remain there.

Therefore, what is happening in Gaza is not merely retaliation for missiles. If there were no missiles, they would have made and launched them as a pretext. This is one episode in a long series, the aim of which is to reach Palestine, which they imagine, or rather, falsely claim, to be a land without a people, once the Palestinians are naturalized by other countries, or once an alternative homeland is found for them.

Therefore, if we do not properly analyze the causes, we will be able to come up with only incomplete, temporary solutions, which will soon collapse. Therefore, as far as we are concerned, the peace process has been nothing but attempts, which have not developed into a real process, because the Israelis suffer a real peace-phobia, and because those who commit crimes cannot be committed to making peace. In addition, thieves do not tend to voluntarily restore what they stole. In other words, they will restore [our] rights only if forced to do so. This is the essence of resistance, as the resistance fighters know full well. Their resistance has become the path to peace, which will be achieved when we restore the rights from this enemy, which understands nothing but the language of force.

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As soon as the aggression began, Syria decided and declared that it was halting the indirect peace negotiations indefinitely, after a consultation with Turkey.

As for the Arab initiative – we consider it as good as dead, because the circumstances of its ratification and the ensuing events have shown that the more we try to demonstrate our true desire for peace, and the more we make additional concessions, the more Israeli displays it arrogance and its disregard for our legitimate rights.

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Legal measures must be taken to hold Israel and its leaders accountable, even though we have no faith in the relevant international bodies. However, it must be recorded in history that they are not merely racists, but rather, a modern and more dangerous version of Nazism.