Sunday, Syrian President Bashar Assad saidthat "the Middle East peace negotiations have come to a dead end because of Israel's lack of genuine will to reach peace."
Assad added that the international community's indifference is also to blame and referred specifically to the American involvement and their "absolute tendency to support the political process in favor of the aggressor."
The Syrian president said that the source of all the instability in the area is "the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan, the Palestinian territories, and territories in Lebanon."
Bashar said these things during a meal held in Damascus in honor of the Nigerian president's visit to Syria .
Bashar stated that "everything that is going on in the world today compels the international community to understand that stability, peace, and security in the region will only be achieved through a complete and just solution based on returning rights and returning the occupied land according to international decisions."
The Syrian president expressed his dismay that "the dangerous and bloody events have worsened following September 11th; this brings this region to a crossroads."
From the beginning we have presented a clear stance regarding the development of things, but the others have chosen a policy of bloody war and destruction only to later discover that their choice which was based on power, destruction, and interfering with others business, was a wrong one," he continued.
Regarding the Iraq issue, Assad said that "solving the problem of Iraq compels the world's joint effort and an end to the American occupation in the country."