Syrian President Bashar Assad
on Wednesday reiterated his stance that the Arabs do not have a real peace partner in Israel.
In a joint press conference with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Assad said, "Today we spoke of the possibility of (jumpstarting the peace process). We believe the main reason for the (stalemate) is the lack of a serious Israeli partner that will work towards achieving peace in the Middle East.
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"We are dealing with a fictitious partner that presents itself as a partner in the peace process, when in fact the opposite is the truth," the Syrian leader told reporters in Damascus.
Assad said Israel's
rhetoric vis-à-vis the peace process "cannot be understood without the use of a dictionary."
"When the Israelis say 'we want negotiations without preconditions', this means, according to the dictionary, that they want baseless negotiations, because negotiations without conditions or a basis are akin to constructing a building without foundations, which would be easily destroyed. They want to destroy the peace process," he said.
Assad also criticized Jerusalem's claim that Turkey, which mediated the indirect talks between Israel and Syria, was biased against Israel. "When they say that the Turkish mediator is not neutral or is biased, this means that (the mediator) is objective," he said.
Referring to the Golan Heights, an area captured by Israel during the Six Day War in
1967, Assad said, "When they say that peace will lead to the return of the land, they mean endless negotiations. The return of the land will bring peace, not the other way around."
Erdogan, for his part, said Syria was Turkey's "gateway to the Middle East and our second homeland, while Turkey is the Syrians' second homeland and its gateway to Europe.
"There is a historical and cultural kinship between the two countries, and we have strengthened it through strategic cooperation at the highest level," the Turkish PM said.
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