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5 May 2009 Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday he was keen
to hear the ruling of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
on the 2005 assassination case of former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri.
Speaking to France 3,
Assad said "knowing who committed this crime will be
very helpful to Syria", acknowledging that many
parties suspected Syria's involvement. "Because when
we have this very clear we'll be very happy and very
relieved."
Assad also urged the
United States to reach out to Hamas and Hezbollah to
reach peace in the Middle East. He welcomed the new
willingness in Washington to listen to Syria's views
since President Barack Obama took office.
The Syrian President
also called on the US administration to hold ‘direct
or indirect’ talks with Hezbollah and Hamas and said
Damascus was ready to help broker contacts with the
resistance groups.
"I think the problem
was with the previous administration," Assad said,
criticizing former U.S. president George Bush.
He welcomed Obama's
decision to send envoys to open a dialogue with Syria.
"I think if you want
to solve the problem you can't go about saying:
'This is good and this
is bad, this is democratic, this is human rights and
this is not politics," he said.
"Politics is when you
act according to accomplished facts and when you
address influential parties to act in a positive or a
negative way," he said.
Assad also called on
the United States to talk to both Iran and the Islamic
movements.
"Hamas has influence
and you cannot ignore them. You can't achieve peace
while Hamas is outside this process or against it," he
said, adding that the same goes for Hezbollah. ‘ |
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