Assad Won't Cut Ties With Israel's Foes

Syria Media Report, 16-May-08

IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Friday, 16 May, 2008

Assad Won't Cut Ties With Israel's Foes

Syria Media Report, 16-May-08

President Bashar al-Assad has insisted that Syria will never cut its ties with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in exchange for peace with Israel, the independent All4Syria website reported on May 9.

Assad told the Italian magazine “Espresso” that he is prepared to sign a peace agreement whereby Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights, which it seized in 1967, but refuses to cut relations with Syria’s allies in exchange for peace.

Separately, Mohammed Saeed Bkhetan, who represented Assad at an Arab teachers’ union conference, asserted that Israel was unable to make peace and the United States was unwilling to play a positive role in making peace.

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