SYRIA: President Bashar al-Assad dismisses call to move away from Iran during Iranian President's official visit to Damascus

Record ID: 279670

  • Title: SYRIA: President Bashar al-Assad dismisses call to move away from Iran during Iranian President's official visit to Damascus
  • Date: 26th February 2010
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (FEBRUARY 25, 2010) (REUTERS) SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD ARRIVING WITH HIS IRANIAN COUNTERPART MAHMOUD AHMEDINEJAD GREETED BY GUARDS OF HONOUR GUARDS OF HONOUR VARIOUS AHMADINEJAD SHAKING HANDS WITH SYRIAN OFFICIALS AT ARRIVAL CEREMONY AL-ASSAD AHMEDINEJAD ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER WALID AL-MOALLEM AND HIS IRANIAN COUNT
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2010 12:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVADUNHK0QN4I8BGVEZ6NL77NFV9
  • Story Text: Syria and Iran put on a show of unity and defied U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday (February 25), dismissing her call on Damascus to loosen its decades-long alliance with Tehran.
    President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a bilateral deal to remove travel visas and attended a Muslim ceremony in the Syrian capital.
    Ahmadinejad's visit came a day after Clinton said the United States was asking Syria "to begin to move away from the relationship with Iran", and to stop supporting the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran.
    "We must have misunderstood the issue, perhaps because of translation or our limited understanding, but I am amazed how they can talk about stability in the Middle East, and peace and all those beautiful concepts, while they call on two countries to split up,"
    Assad said referring to Clinton's appeal.
    Ahmadinejad in his turn joked about Hillary Clinton's call on Syria to distance itself from Iran citing an old Persian proverb about a mother of a bride calling on her daughter to keep distance from the groom on the day of the wedding.
    "We are told we should maintain a distance. I say there is no distance between us to maintain. We have a proverb which applies to people who speak out of turn or say something which is not their business. And the proverb is: "The mother of the bride has just spoken."
    Support for Hezbollah forms the linchpin of the Syrian-Iranian alliance, formed 30 years ago despite ideological differences between the ruling hierarchy in the two countries.
    Diplomats in Damascus said Syrian support for the group has been a main sticking point in the rapprochement between Syria and the United States, which started shortly after President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
    Assad also backed Iran in its nuclear dispute with the West and said Western moves to exert pressure on Tehran constituted "neo-colonisation".
    "Whatever is applied to Iran today will be applied to all other countries later, therefore our position in Syria stems from our understanding of this issue based on our principles and also from our own interests as a country which may seek in the future, like any other country, to possess peaceful energy and all it is in the interest of all other countries, in my belief, to seek such a direction," he said at a news conference in Damascus.
    The United States, along with other United Nations Security Council members and Germany, is discussing possible fresh sanctions on Iran because of suspicions it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon, which it strongly denies.
    Relations between Syria and Iran improved after the 1979 Iranian revolution that brought Shi'ite clergy to power. Alone among Arab countries, Syria, whose ruling hierarchy is secular, supported Iran during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.
    But their alliance is being tested by Syrian moves to seek a peace deal with Israel and the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
    Iran did not hide its displeasure at Syria's participation in a 2007 U.S.-supervised Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland that it attended with Israel, prompting Syrian officials to emphasise that Syria was a sovereign country and not a proxy of Iran.
    Syrian officials have also made it clear that while Syria is against any Israeli attack on Iran, Syria's struggle with Israel does not mean it would be party to any hostilities between Tehran and the Jewish state.
    Clinton told Senate members this week that Syria's ties with Iran were "deeply troubling" to Washington and Syria must stop helping arm Hezbollah, an accusation Syria denies.
    She urged Syria to resume peace talks with Israel, saying Washington would consider doing anything that could resolve the stalemate between them. Indirect talks between the two, under Turkish mediation, broke down two years ago.
    Diplomats said U.S. envoy George Mitchell raised the issue of Syrian backing for Hezbollah during a meeting with Assad last month. Obama has since nominated an ambassador to Damascus after a five-year absence and Under-secretary of State William Burns, the architect of a deal that rehabilitated Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, visited Damascus this month.
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