Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Not Arab-Iranian, But Saudi-Iranian Problem


Al-Manar

"28/05/2008 "Now that the Lebanese crisis has been put on the track of solution, let the discourse on the Arab situation be clear: the Saudi leadership is conspiring on Syria and working on overthrowing its regime."

The Lebanese daily al-Akhbar quoted these remarks from an Arab diplomatic source in the Bahraini capital Manamah. According to the daily, the source had unveiled the discussion that took place between Syrian President Bashar Assad and Arab League Chief Amr Mussa.

Citing the diplomatic source, al-Akhbar said that Assad accused Saudi Arabia of working on toppling his regime and listed in details the positions and contacts made by King Abdullah, his Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, his intelligence chief Miqrin Bin Abdul Aziz and his national security chief Bandar Bin Sultan, in a bid to push foreign forces into invading Syria and toppling the regime.

Assad's words, according to the source, gave Mussa the impression that normalizing ties between Damascus and Riyadh in the near future is not an easy task.

Meanwhile, the Syrian president turned down Mussa's request to forma committee to work on Arab-Iranian dialogue over outstanding issues. Assad stressed there is no Arab-Iranian problem, but in fact there is a Saudi-Iranian problem.

"Can you tell me what is the problem of Morocco, Algeria or even yours, as an Egyptian citizen, with Iran?" Who told you that there is a Syrian, Lebanese or Palestinian problem with Iran? Yes, Saudi Arabia has a problem with the Islamic Republic, which according to the kingdom is the result of a wave of presumed Shiitism, which is not true. Therefore, let Saudi Arabia fix its problems with Iran, but I will not accept that the Arabs shoulder the responsibility of the Saudi policy, because there is no such thing as an Arab-Iranian problem," President Assad told Mussa.

According to the diplomatic source, Assad also said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refrains from visiting Syria because he does not wish to upset Saudi Arabia. The Syrian president told Mussa that Mubarak did help in reuniting Arabs, instead he worked on thwarting the Arab Summit in Damascus.

President Assad called for cautiousness against outstanding and dangerous problems in the region and urged Hamas and Fatah movements to make use of the Doha Agreement experience (on Lebanon) to resolve their differences."

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