- Title: AUSTRIA: Syrian President al-Assad meets with counterpart Heinz Fischer
- Date: 28th April 2009
- Summary: ASSAD, FISCHER AND DELEGATIONS' OFFICIALS WALKING IN CORRIDOR ASSAD, FISCHER AND WIVES SHAKING HANDS ASSAD AND FISCHER SITTING AT TABLE CLOSE OF ASSAD ASSAD AND FISCHER SITTING AT TABLE PORTRAIT OF AUSTRO HUNGARIAN EMPERESS MARIA THERESIA ON WALL ASSAD AND FISCHER ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDEBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL- ASSAD SAYING: "We do not wish
- Embargoed: 13th May 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Austria
- Country: Austria
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA3810KN4EZ0CA07JINVP22D4AY
- Story Text: Syrian president Bashar al-Assad visits Vienna and meets with counterpart Heinz Fischer. Al-Assad told reporters at a news conference there would be no progress towards peace with Israel unless the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, is returned to Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday (April 27) there could be no progress towards peace with Israel unless the Jewish state recognised the right of Damascus to get back the Golan Heights.
Assad reasserted the bedrock Syrian condition for an end to decades of conflict a day after Israel's new ultra-nationalist foreign minister said it would talk peace with Syria only if it stopped demanding an Israeli commitment to return the Golan.
"We do not wish to say that the Golan is important, it is a right.
Whether it be important or unimportant, it is our land and it is our right and consequently should be returned by all means," Assad told a brief news conference after talks with his Austrian counterpart on a two-day visit to Vienna.
"To say that we have confidence in the current Israeli government, to be honest, I do not want to say that we had confidence in the past governments. Since Rabin, we have seen no one on the ground leaning towards peace," he added.
Syria says that Israel, which captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a step not recognised abroad, is legally required under U.N. resolutions to return it along with other occupied Arab territory.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday he would be happy to negotiate with Syria, "but without preconditions and without ultimatums".
"Recently we have heard from the Israeli government that it does not want, or is unwilling to return the Golan and we have also heard its refusal of the principal of two states, a Palestinian state and an Israeli state and all are aware that there is international unanimity in favour of the two-state principal and there is also international support for Syria and its right to the complete return of it's land," Assad said.
However, Assad continued on to say that Syria, along with its European friends and the U.S. administration, would continue to strive for peace.
After eight years in which Washington under George W. Bush gave Middle East peace talks short shrift in favour of trying to isolate Israel's foes, President Barack Obama appears keen on engaging Syria and Iran, encouraging Syrian-Israeli dialogue possibly as part of a wider land-for-peace deal, and kickstarting moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Netanyahu's centrist predecessor, Ehud Olmert, held indirect talks with Syria through Turkish mediators. Syria froze those contacts in protest at Israel's January war in Gaza, but has since signalled willingness to resume.
Some 400 Kurds living in Austria protested in front of the Austrian president's office during the meeting, asking for the return Kurds return of property and citizenship to Kurds in Syria. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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