Wednesday, December 28, 2005 - 10:55 AM

Syria underlined on Tuesday that the Syrian-Turkish ties are making headway and becoming more consolidated noting that Turkey believes in the unfairness of what is happening to Syria these days.
In an interview with the Turkish T.V. Sky News, President Bashar al-Assad said the Syrian-Turkish ties are progressing in a constant and firm way and there is a conviction to Turkish institutions and to many world countries of the unfairness of what is happening to Syria now and that these pressures are of political aims.
“I can say that the relationship with Turkey is moving ahead in all economic, political, economic and security coordination, natural social ties and historical domains and they are progressing as well becoming more consolidated by time”.
Talking about the economic side of ties with Turkey, President Assad noted that the economic treaties were of course moving forward despite that sometimes there might be obstacles due to the bureaucratic mechanism either in Syria or Turkey saying that these obstructions might sometimes delay the implementation of something.
 He pointed out that Syria is now improving a lot of mechanism it has and with this development the ties are accelerating and there are regular and continuous meetings between businessmen and officials in both countries.
President Assad said the Turkish policy has moved towards openness regarding neighboring countries for many years and Syria did not feel any change in the content of this but on the contrary.
President Assad said that Turkey has mad a very courageous suggestion regarding the investigation with Syrian officers by the UNIIIC noting that Turkey presented the site of Ghazi Eintab to hold the inquires there while no other state made like the Turkish offer which we appreciate saying that he does not believe that change in ties between Turkey and Syria might have led to such suggestion.
“ The Turkish suggestion was not accepted by the UNIIIC but Syria approved it and considered it as very good,” President Assad said.
Talking about the two reports of UN inspector Detlev Mehlis, President Assad said by all means we have notes on the first and second reports and perhaps we do have conclusions. The report is a narrative of meetings with persons real and false witnesses but at the end the report said it is not over. The most dangerous was that the two UN Security Council decisions were built on the two reports, which are not final.
 The president agreed that what is happening in Lebanon poses as an international pressure on Syria saying “ Yes, the true is that the issue is political in a clear way and has no relation to criminal actions taking place in Lebanon,” noting that what we expect is that the report would be professional and that means to reach at the end to he who has committed the crime of killing President Hariri.
“ For us in Syria … we think that this report when reaches at the final result, will acquit Syria. This is in case it was objective, and far from political pressures. But regarding, raising fingers at Syria, of course and as I said before; we reject these accusations and condemn these crimes,” President Assad said.
President Assad emphasized that Rafik Hariri was a friend of Syria and was cooperative with her till the end, noting that he had declared statements in this respect, but they were those who accuse Syria that she has threatened him on the subject of extension to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. President Assad said that Hariri responded to the Syrian demand and that means Hariri had no position against Syria to say that he had differences with her.  
President Assad gave that as an example of mechanism for some explanations to what is happening because of the bad intentions or good intentions but clarified that all what is said is “nothing but rumors or fabricated stories in advance to condemn Syria.”
“I previously declared in a clear way that if there was a Syrian involved in any criminal action of these operations, he would be sued. This is, as I said in a previous interview, considered a treason in the Syrian law,” President Assad said.
Asked about the meaning of the Greater Middle East, President Assad said the most important point in this respect was the content which must not contradict with our interests, our natural historical ties with our culture because when culture is affected it leads to negative results influencing the region stability.
“I don’t think that far away from intentions of those who propose these idioms, there is somebody who is capable of understanding our idioms more than we do. The suggestion should come from these states which mean despite of our respect to others view points; we can’t allow research centers define our future because our history defines our interests and our direct contacts as states living in the region,” President Assad said.
On the democratic reform in Syria, President Assad added that saying that development has to be rapid is impossible, because the issue is related to human and financial capabilities as well as it is related to the political conditions the region and Syria are passing through.
“We are under siege in everything.. in technology, even the companies that might help us in the process of development are being prevented from coming to Syria,” President Assad elaborated.
“The most important thing is to walk forward, clearly there might be slowness, but there is no stop for this process,” the President said.
On the US occupation of Iraq the border issue with the Arab neighboring country, President Assad said that Syria has an interest in controlling borders away from the US demand, adding it is an old suffering regarding the Syrian-Iraqi borders.
“Syria has adopted procedures to control borders with Iraq, but if we look into the other side of Iraq borders, you can notice that there is not any US and Iraqi measure to do so,” the President added.
He said that in spite of the fact that the Syrian-Turkish borders are geographically complicated and longer, they are more controlled due to the Syrian-Turkish cooperation.
On relations with the Iraqi people, the President said that the Iraqis understand Syria’s stance and know very well that Syria has no relation to the terrorists’ infiltration into Iraq.
“Terrorists are coming from other states, but the accusation comes to Syria… there is more understanding of Syria’s stance during the last months internationally, particularly after the issuance of the first and second reports on Lebanon.. so the image now is better than before, political games can’t continue when they  are based on illusions, they remain temporal,” President Assad said. 
On Iraq future and elections, the President said that the Iraqi future depends on constitution and what is proposed regarding federalism.
“We consider that the essence of the matter is the unity of Iraq, the essence of future.. the essence of the region future is not only Iraq, but Syria ,Turkey and the rest of states, and even remote couturiers that their future and stability depend on the future of Iraq,” President Assad noted.
“Any federalism which is built on a sect of race basis will lead to the sedition of Iraq or to the instigation of riots among Iraqis… if there is a need or necessity to the federalism in Iraq, it should be based only on a national factor,” the President added.
On the Syrian concept of the Kurdish issue inside Syria, President Assad said
“Kurds are a basic part of our social body in our region, this part is not artificial, but we should separate terrorist acts and extremist parties from the Kurdish issue.”
He elaborated that the Kurdish problem in Syria is a technical problem related to a statistics of the year 1962 and Syria is working now to solve the Kurdish problem.
On the peace process, the President noted that we don’t see any interest  of the Israeli government or an Israeli popular inclination to peace.
“Syria is still committed to the peace process based on the UN and Security Council resolutions… The current US administration doesn’t show any interest or wish for peace, particularly on the Syrian track,” President Assad said.
He added that if the third party (the US) and the Israeli party are not interested in the peace process, we can’t expect there will be any serious move soon.
In this context, President Assad expressed support to any Turkish role in this issue.
On Iran, the President said that Iran has the right to possess nuclear materials for peaceful purposes, but, the President wonders what about the Israeli nuclear weapons…  
“Syria’s permanent stance is making the Middle East an area free from weapons of mass destruction and Syria submitted a proposal in 2003 to the UN Security Council to free the region from (WMD),” President Assad added.
On international political blocs , the President noted that Syria seeks to be a partner with Europe, not a part of the European Union, but the partnership is also quest in this direction, referring to the Arab Joint Market and to other political blocs in Asia.
On the role of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the United Nation, President Assad underlined that OIC is not a substitution of the UN, but it is integrated to it.
“When the UN is converted to be a tool by the hands of some superpowers, then the OIC and other political blocs become a substitution of the UN,” President Assad added.
He added that away from the UN role, the OIC is very important in the sense that we live in time which is not only witnessing an economic and political conflict, but a cultural war that takes a clear flagrant direction against Islam.
The President announced that he would very soon visit Turkey at the beginning of next year upon invitation of the Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Cezar and the Turkish Premier Recep Tayyeb Erdogan.