Staying with Iran. Assad
Photo: AP
Assad waiting for Obama
Photo: AP
Report: Syria ready to cooperate with US
German magazine says President Assad has signaled his readiness to cooperate with Obama administration, but also indicated his country won't give up good relations with Iran
Syrian President Bashar Assad
has signaled his readiness to cooperate with the new US administration, but also indicated that his country won't give up good relations with Iran,
a German magazine reported Saturday.
"We would gladly contribute to stabilizing the region," Assad was quoted as saying in an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, in response to a suggestion that Obama might seek Syria's help in curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. "But we must be included and not, as up to now, isolated."
Barack Obama's election has raised hopes for better ties between Syria and the US after years of strained ties under outgoing President George W. Bush. Damascus has close ties with Iran, which the West suspects of seeking a nuclear bomb.
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"We are ready for any form of cooperation that is also helpful for America's relations with other countries," he said, according to the report.
However, "we are independent - no one can dictate to us what we have to do; our actions are determined by our interests alone," Assad was quoted as saying. "Good relations with Washington must not mean bad relations with Tehran."
Assad said he did not believe Iran was seeking a nuclear bomb. And looking back at the Bush administration, he argued that "the world situation has worsened in every way in the last eight years."
"We are talking of hopes, not expectations," he said, according to Der Spiegel. "There must be a withdrawal by the Americans in Iraq; the new US government must become seriously engaged in the peace process. We must help it in that, together with the Europeans."
Syria has for years maintained close ties with Hamas, one of several anti-Israel militant groups that Damascus supports to gain leverage in any future peace negotiations with Israel.
In Israel's current conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Assad advocated a simultaneous cease-fire on both sides, followed by a full Israeli withdrawal from the whole Gaza Strip "in the following 48 hours, but at most within four days," Der Spiegel reported.
He said there should be negotiations on an end to Israel's blockade of the territory within a week, and that "people in Gaza need international guarantees that they will not be attacked again."
