DIMITRY AND BASHAR: TWO THUGS MAKE UP AND VOW A MIDEAST “ROLE”
AFP/SANA – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (right) shakes hands with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev during … DAMASCUS (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev pledged a major Russian role in Middle East peace efforts on Tuesday as he sought to use a landmark visit to Syria to recover influence in the strategic region.
In a nod to a Cold War ally with which relations drifted after the Soviet Union’s 1991 collapse, Medvedev also promised Russian help in developing Syria’s oil and gas infrastructure as Damascus seeks to restore its role as a major transit route between the Gulf and the Mediterranean.
In a joint statement adopted after two days of talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, the two men pledged to put a major focus on the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
They called on Israel to withdraw from the Syrian Golan Heights as well as “all other Arab lands occupied in June 1967.”
Ahead of their talks on Tuesday. the Syrian leader had called for Russian help in achieving a just and comprehensive peace that saw the return of the Golan which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.
“It is a vitally important issue” for Syria, Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Turkey, Medevdev’s next port of call after Damascus, brokered indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel in 2008 but they were broken off when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip that December.
The two leaders also took aim at Israel over recent tensions with Syria over alleged arms sales to Lebanon’s Hezbollah and settlement moves in annexed Arab east Jerusalem which have overshadowed the renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians just days ago.
“The parties express deep concern over the remaining dangerous tension in the Middle East, first and foremost as the result of the continuing Israeli occupation, and condemn Israel settlement activity, (and) any unilateral attempts towards occupied Arab land, including east Jerusalem,” they said.
Medvedev had spoken with Israeli President Shimon Peres by telephone of his talks in Damascus, the Israeli leader’s office said on Sunday.
“The two presidents spoke at length about the state of things between Syria and Israel and President Peres asked to send a clear message to Syrian President Assad,” it said.
Peres said “Israel has no interest in a war with Syria or in heating up the northern border and that Israel is seeking a genuine peace with its Syrian neighbour.”
But he said that a peace deal was dependent on an end to Syrian “support of terrorism and arms smuggling,” an allusion to Israel’s accusations of the supply of Scud missiles to Hezbollah.
Neither Assad nor Medvedev made any comment about the Israeli message but in their joint statement they talked about another key Israeli concern — Iran’s nuclear programme.
Israel and the West fear the programme is a cover for a weapons drive, something that Tehran, Damascus’s key regional ally, strongly denies.
“Russia and Syria stress their commitment to reaching a peaceful diplomatic settlement to the Iranian nuclear programme and support efforts to look for an appropriate negotiated solution,” the statement said.
Neither Israel nor the United States has ruled out a resort to military action to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon.
Assad and Medvedev called on Israel — which has the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear arsenal — to “join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a “non-nuclear state” and become subject to International Atomic Energy Agency control.
Medvedev promised that Russian military cooperation with Syria — a regular target of israeli criticism — would continue subject to their “mutual interests and international obligations.”
Syria, one of the few countries to back Russia in its war with Georgia in 2008, is a major purchaser of its arms and Medvedev’s top foreign policy aide, Sergei Prikhodko, said military cooperation was firmly on the visit’s agenda.
The statement also promised that infrastructure projects, particularly in oil and gas, and energy transit, would be the focus of bilateral cooperation, along with aviation and communication, high-tech and “peaceful use of space.”
Comments are closed.
