Dr Muhsen Bilali
Photo: AFP
Syrian minister says Israelis are 'immoral'
Information minister says 'if Israelis had morals, their president would not have raped'; adds Israel, US set to strike Syria 'any time' but will 'die' if they do so
"Israelis have no law, no values, no religion and no morals. If they had, their president would not have raped an Israeli citizen," Dr Muhsen Bilali, the Syrian minister of information, said Sunday.
Speaking to the UAE daily Al-Khalij, Bilali said the sex scandal involving former President Moshe Katsav was proof that Israeli society lacked norms of conduct.
He added that Israel was a "treacherous" state and therefore Syria was very wary and would not "give up the Golan Heights."
He compared Israel and the United States to "a snake" who continued to suffer calamities in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. "This snake is set to strike any time, although it knows it will die if it does so," he continued.
Accusing the United States of fascism, Bilali said Washington was seeking to "turn Iraq into a large base for terror activities, to sow strife in Lebanon and continues to impose a siege on the legitimate Hamas government in Palestine."
He also said Washington was responsible for the large influx into Syria of Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi refugees.
Bilali censured Saudi Arabia for accepting Washington's invitation to a Mideast peace conference in the United States in November, saying the conference would "blow up" a land-for-peace initiative approved by the Arab League in 2002.
"We ask Saudi Arabia and all those who received Bush's invitation to ask the Americans about the details of the peace conference. There is no American initiative, there is nothing," he said.
