Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Tuesday during a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel has committed many "massacres" during the continued aggression on Gaza Strip and most of the victims are children and women. He underlined that the situation in the Gaza Strip is like a "collective detention camp", which aims at breaking the will of the whole people, indicating that there have been many serious consultations among several countries interested in finding solution to this issue.
"I have explained to President Sarkozy the vision and position of Syria, which is summarized by first stopping the barbaric Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people immediately, achieving ceasefire, and the immediate withdrawal of the occupation forces from Gaza lands.
"Second, lifting the siege as it constitutes a non-military declaration of war and a slow death. There can be no real and lasting ceasefire without lifting the siege. When we give someone a choice between slow death and fast death, they will choose fast death since it's easier. These two points are basic, with more details following them to form the basis for any permanent and lasting solution in Gaze."
"What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a war crime," President al-Assad said, noting that Amnesty International issued yesterday a report stating that Israel pays no heed to the Geneva Conventions.
According to SANA, the Syrian leader said that the Israelis did not learn from the 2006 Lebanon War's lessons. In the Lebanon war it wanted to eradicate the resistance, and this led to the growth of this thought in the society, "the resistance is not an organization to dissolve it, not a person to assassinate and not a weapons warehouse to destroy …the resistance is a thought."
He went on to say: "We are confident that the Israeli aggression will not be able to break the Palestinian people's will to establish their own independent state and withdrawal of the occupiers from their occupied territories… We are ready to exert all efforts and cooperate with any effort exerted in the region in this regard, regionally or internationally."
President al-Assad affirmed that Syria adheres to its position on the need of holding an Arab Summit, pointing out that there were communications between him and the Emir of Qatar discussing this issue during the past two days. "If this isn't the right time to hold an Arab Summit, then what condition calls for holding an Arab Summit? Is it possible to attend an economic summit in two weeks while it is impossible to attend a summit for a political reason and for dealing with a human, political and military situation? This in unacceptable and what is being done so far is unacceptable."
Assad pointed out that Syria still insists on holding this summit, and that "Syria as the president of the Arab Summit and Qatar as a host of the Summit have been making efforts to achieve the quorum in order to hold a successful Arab Summit, but circumstances call for a Summit in any form, even a mini-summit, even a summit with whoever attends."
