Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad: Some Lebanese Are Blood Merchants Who Have Turned the Blood of Al-Hariri into a Stock Exchange that Yields Money and Positions

Following are excerpts from a speech by Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on November 10, 2005.

President Bashar Al-Assad: Many times we read or hear from foreign emissaries that the reason some foreign officials in these countries are angry...Today I'm using the third person, saying "they" and "them," but you all know who I mean by “they” and them”. The reason they are angry at Syria is that President Bashar Al-Assad made a commitment to them to carry out internal reform, and has not done so. I didn’t know that the Syrian people appointed them as representatives instead of his parliament members, and President Bashar is supposed to make commitments to these foreign officials. I didn’t know they cared for us more than we care for ourselves. I didn’t know someone appointed them to be in charge of us and to give us grades. The truth is that this indicates great contempt – not towards Syria, I’m talking about the Arab countries in general. This is how they view us, as if we do not exist – a land without a people or resources without owners. Al-Hariri (followers) began accusing Syria of killing him. At the same time, they absolved Israel of this. It is as if they are saying Al-Hariri wasn’t good for Syria but he was good for Israel, and this is not true. Why are they portraying him as a traitor? The truth is that most of them are blood merchants. They’ve turned Hariri’s blood into a stock exchange. This stock exchange yields money and positions. Each newspaper article has a price, each stance has a price, and each TV broadcasting hour has a price. Nevertheless, we ignored all these things, we didn’t stoop to their level, we maintained our well-known Syrian position, and we hosted Prime Minister Al-Siniora. We discussed various topics, and told him that I wanted this visit to be successful. What’s important for us are the Syrian-Lebanese relations. I said to him that I didn’t want Lebanon to become a passage for any conspiracy against Syria. Whether a political conspiracy or in terms of security. He said unequivocally: “Under no circumstances will I allow Lebanon to become a passage for any conspiracy against Syria. The truth is that today Lebanon has become a passage, a factory, and a financier for all these conspiracies. In other words, Mr. Al-Siniora could not make good on…or maybe he was not allowed to make good on (his commitment), because he is the slave of a slave. What is happening now has nothing to do with Al-Hariri’s assassination. Nothing at all. If they really cared about the blood of Al-Harriri, they would have set up an investigation commission for President Arafat, who was poisoned in the Palestinian territories, and died in France. The region is now facing two options alone: either resistance and steadfastness, or anarchy. There is no third option. Resistance prevents anarchy. Resistance has a price, and anarchy has a price, but the price of the resistance and steadfastness is much lower than the price of anarchy.