Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad: The World Has a Problem with Pan-Arabism and Islam; Israel Assassinated Yasser Arafat

Following are excerpts from a speech given by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, which aired on Syrian TV on January 21, 2006.

Bashar Al-Assad: Some of the superpowers have a problem with the Arabs and Muslims, and, as I have said before, with many - or most - of the world's countries. We see this constantly in their declarations, and in our meetings and discussions with them. They don't want us to adhere to any [principle]. Not only do they have a problem with pan-Arabism and Islam, but they do not want anyone to adhere to the truth, to any principles, to religious belief, to national or even economic philosophy. They want to turn the entire world and its peoples into a group of computers, which can be fed with data and operating systems, so that they can program them, and use them when the time comes, whatever way they want, for the sake of their own interests.

If we accept this, we are classified as patriotic, wise, and democratic. If not, we are considered terrorists or supporters of terrorism. This terrorism has different names, which change with the changing circumstances and interests, and to be honest, we call it a fad. Some years ago, we would hear about Palestinian terrorism. Then they started talking about Lebanese terrorism, during the Lebanese civil war. Today they are talking about Islamic terrorism. Don't be surprised if they soon coin the term "sovereign terrorism." In fact, this is already happening, with countries that want to be sovereign. In fact, this has already been implemented, and it is only a matter of time until they come up with the term. This is no exaggeration. In the corridors of the UN Security Council, some of the international forces, with which you are familiar, discuss the principle of national sovereignty. In order to abolish this principle, they are using various pretexts –human rights, corrupt regimes, corruption, and other pretexts which they come up with.

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In addition to the many massacres perpetrated by Israel, especially after the Arab initiative, and the invasion of Jenin and Nablus at that time, and the many assassinations that it carried out systematically, the most serious thing that Israel did was the assassination of President Yasser Arafat - and I am pleased you mentioned this.

We are expected to abolish many of our concepts, on which we are raised, such as sacrifice for the homeland or the sacred homeland. If we accept any concept other than national sovereignty, we must abolish these concepts. We must not give up our national sovereignty. Even if we need to fight for our country, we must be prepared to do this.

Man in the audience: Mr. President...Your good speech reminded me of Gamal Abd Al-Nasser's speech in 1956. Bashar Hafez Al-Assad is truly the Nasser of the 21st century.

Crowd: Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice for you, Bashar.

Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice for you, Bashar.

Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice for you, Bashar.

Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice for you, Bashar.