DAMASCUS, 15 April 2005 — Syrian President Bashar Assad said he was aggrieved that his country’s efforts to combat terrorism and promote peace were going unnoticed by the international community.
“We have made every effort to fight terrorism but these moves and other positive initiatives have been ignored by the international community while Israel raises obstacles to every development in the peace process,” Assad said at a dinner Wednesday for visiting Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
Syria has faced intense US-led pressure over its dominant role in neighboring Lebanon and Washington’s allegations that it is sponsoring terrorism and playing a role in the insurgency in Iraq.
Assad said his country was committed to the “unity and stability” of Iraq. “We have not interfered in Iraq’s domestic affairs and we have supported the political process in the country.”
Syria has bowed to the international community over Lebanon and is pulling out its troops in a move it has pledged to wrap up by the end of April, ending a near three-decade military presence in its tiny neighbor.
Sezer, who kicked off a two-day visit to Syria on Wednesday despite US pressure for him not to go, said that during their talks the two leaders had underlined the need to preserve “the stability and national unity of Lebanon.”
Turkey and Syria have greatly improved their stormy ties since 1998, when they came to the brink of war over Ankara’s accusations that Damascus was sheltering separatist Kurdish militants fighting the Turkish government.
Sezer’s visit, a first to Syria for the Turkish leader, follows one by Assad to Turkey last year and both leaders hailed the improvement in ties and cooperation on bilateral and regional issues.
Sezer told a news conference on his return to Ankara yesterday he had urged Syria to pull all its forces out of Lebanon.
“We stressed the importance of withdrawing Syria’s soldiers from Lebanon under the UN Security Council resolution,” Sezer said. “We were pleased to be told of the political will in Syria on this issue.”
In another development, Iran’s Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi met President Bashar Assad yesterday with Lebanon high on the agenda of his second visit to Syria in less than two weeks.
Kharrazi, who also held talks with his Syrian counterpart Farouk Shara, told reporters the two countries needed to consult on developments in the region and the Palestinian question. “The political vacuum in Lebanon is not in the interests of any country in the region,” he stressed. Shara and Kharrazi reviewed the situation in Lebanon and Iraq, and the meeting of Iraq’s neighbors taking place in Istanbul on April 18-19, the state news agency SANA said.
