{"id":630,"date":"2007-10-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-10-01T20:26:49","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T20:26:49","slug":"assad-sets-conference-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/assad-sets-conference-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Assad sets conference conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Monday, 1 October 2007<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/P>
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\"Syrian<\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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<\/A><\/SPAN><\/v:imagedata><\/w:wrap><\/v:shape>Mr Assad talks to BBC<\/SPAN><\/B> <\/SPAN><\/A><\/SPAN><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P><\/TD><\/TR><\/TBODY><\/TABLE>
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his government will not attend a <\/SPAN><\/B>Middle East<\/SPAN><\/B><\/st1:place> peace conference unless <\/SPAN><\/B>Syria<\/SPAN><\/B><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>‘s concerns are addressed.<\/SPAN><\/B> <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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President Assad told the BBC that this meant primarily the return of the <\/SPAN>Golan Heights<\/SPAN><\/st1:place>, occupied by <\/SPAN>Israel<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> since 1967. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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Mr Assad said no opportunity for peace should be squandered, but he saw little of the substance needed for success in US plans for a conference in November. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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The talks are intended to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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The <\/SPAN>US<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> had said it would invite <\/SPAN>Syria<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, but only as a member of an Arab League committee dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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‘Comprehensive peace’<\/SPAN><\/B> <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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In his BBC interview, Mr Assad stressed that <\/SPAN>Syria<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> still needed more clarification about the conference before it took its decision whether to attend or not. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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“So far we didn’t have the invitation and we didn’t have any clarification about anything,” he said. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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<\/v:imagedata><\/v:shape><\/SPAN>Retaliate doesn’t mean missile for missile and bomb for bomb. But we have the right to retaliate<\/SPAN><\/B> <\/SPAN><\/v:imagedata><\/w:wrap><\/v:shape>
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President Assad on <\/SPAN>Israel<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>‘s air strike<\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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“If they don’t talk about the Syrian occupied territory, no, there’s no way for <\/SPAN>Syria<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> to go there. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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“It should be about comprehensive peace, and <\/SPAN>Syria<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is part of this comprehensive peace. Without that, we shouldn’t go, we wouldn’t go.” <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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Mr Assad also spoke about an Israeli air raid on northern <\/SPAN>Syria<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> early in September which he said showed <\/SPAN>Israel<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>‘s “visceral antipathy towards peace”. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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He said <\/SPAN>Syria<\/SPAN><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> reserved the right to respond to the attack – which he said targeted an unused military building – although he did not specify what that response should be. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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“Retaliate doesn’t mean missile for missile and bomb for bomb. We have our means to retaliate, maybe politically, maybe in other ways. But we have the right to retaliate,” he said. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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The comments were the first by the Syrian leader about the mysterious Israeli air incursion. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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<\/v:imagedata><\/v:shape><\/SPAN>The biggest issue is the return of the Palestinian refugees to their original homes<\/SPAN><\/B> <\/SPAN><\/v:imagedata><\/w:wrap><\/v:shape>
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Abdul, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia<\/SPAN><\/P><\/TD><\/TR><\/TBODY><\/TABLE>
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In the early hours of 6 September a number of Israeli jets appeared to enter Syrian air-space from the <\/SPAN>Mediterranean Sea<\/SPAN><\/st1:place>. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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Later unidentified drop tanks, which may have contained fuel from the planes, were found on Turkish soil near the Syrian border, indicating a possible exit route. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>
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Israeli officials have not confirmed the incursion. The Syrian authorities previously said that the aircraft were driven off but that they fired their weaponry into a deserted area. <\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P><\/TD>
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 BBC News<\/FONT><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, 1 October 2007     Mr Assad talks to BBC Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his government will not attend a Middle East peace conference unless Syria‘s concerns are addressed. President Assad told the BBC that this meant primarily the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967. Mr Assad said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-assyrian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}