DAMASCUS, 30 October 2006 — Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in remarks published yesterday that the United States’ project for a “Greater Middle East” was “an unrealizable dream.”
“The people of the Middle East will decide their own future by themselves. The great powers cannot impose on them policies that they reject,” Bilal was quoted as saying.
“The project for a ‘Greater Middle East’ is just an unrealizable American dream.” Bilal called for “a just and comprehensive peace in the region based on UN Security Council resolutions” on the Israeli-Arab conflict.
“The European Union could play a more effective and more positive role in exerting pressure on Israel to pursue the peace process” with Arab states, he added.
Peace negotiations between Syria and Israel have been frozen since January 2000 over the thorny issue of the Golan Heights, occupied by the Jewish state in 1967 and annexed in 1981, which Damascus wants back.
Iran, Syria Discuss Iraq
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday to discuss ways to stabilize Iraq and deepen ties between the two countries. “We discussed the Iraqi issue and the talks were good,” Mottaki told reporters. “They focused on the need to end occupation and achieve peace and stability. We also affirmed the needs for Iraqi citizens to determine the fate of their country and support the Iraqi government,” he said.
US President George W. Bush on Wednesday warned Iran and Syria against stoking instability in Iraq and Lebanon.
