Asad: “Peace with Israel will not affect relations with Iran”

Wednesday October 01, 2008 04:32 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Syrian President Bashar Asad stated on Tuesday that an Israeli-Syrian peace deal will not have any impact on the relations between Syria and Tehran and will not affect the relations between Syria and any other Arab country.

Syrian President - Bashar Asad

Asad added that the American regime is not interested in pushing the Middle East towards peace, and added that the US Middle East policy is based on military might and war instead of on diplomacy.

He also said that Europe can help the United States in “taking a more serious position towards peace in the Middle East”.

The Syrian president stated that the relations between his country and the United States are improving and the Wall Street Journal stated in a Tuesday report that senior US and Syrian officials held a number of meetings.

The main meeting was between the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid Moallem.

Yet Asad repeatedly stated that peace talks will not affect Syrian-Iranian relations.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Syrian and American diplomats held several meetings in the US over the past week.

The Journal added that these meetings could be seen and a sign of a potential thaw between the United States and Syria, especially since the US President, George W. Bush, considers Syria as “the main sponsor of international terror”.

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