A True Holocaust that the World Will Deny: Syrian Foreign Minister Blasts Syria War Lies at Geneva II
by alethoSANA | January 23, 2014
Montruex – The international conference on Syria, Geneva2, kicked off on Wednesday
morning with the participation of Syria’s official delegation, headed
by Deputy Premier, Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Walid al-Moallem.
Minister al-Moallem said at the opening session of the conference:
Ladies
and Gentlemen, On behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic, SYRIAN – steeped
in history for seven thousand years. ARAB – proud of its steadfast
pan-Arab heritage despite the deliberate acts of aggression of supposed
brotherly Arabs. REPUBLIC – a civil state that some, sitting in this
room, have tried to return to medieval times. Never have I been in a
more difficult position; my delegation and I carry the weight of three
years of hardship endured by my fellow countrymen – the blood of our
martyrs, the tears of our bereaved, the anguish of families waiting for
news of a loved one – kidnapped or missing, the cries of our children
whose tender fingers were the targets of mortar shelling into their
classrooms, the hopes of an entire generation destroyed before their
very eyes, the courage of mothers and fathers who have sent all their
sons to defend our country, the heartbreak of families whose homes have
been destroyed and are now displaced or refugees.
Al-Moallem: My delegation and I carry the hope of a nation for the years to come
My
delegation and I also carry the hope of a nation for the years to come –
the right of every child to safely go to school again, the right of
women to leave their homes without fear of being kidnapped, killed or
raped; the dream of our youth to fulfill their vast potential; the
return of security so that every man can leave his family safe in the
knowledge that he will return.
Finally,
today, the moment of truth; the truth that many have systematically
tried to bury in a series of campaigns of misinformation, deception and
fabrication leading to killing and terror. A truth that refused to be
buried, a truth clear for all to see – the delegation of the Syrian Arab
Republic representing the Syrian people, the government, the state, the
Army and the President – Bashar al-Assad.
It is regrettable that seated amongst us are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands
It
is regrettable, Ladies and Gentlemen, that seated amongst us today in
this room, are representatives of countries that have the blood of
Syrians on their hands, countries that have exported terrorism along
with clemency for the perpetrators, as if it was their God given right
to determine who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. Countries
that have prevented believers from visiting holy places of worship
whilst abetting, financing and supporting terrorists. Countries that
gave themselves the authority to grant and deny legitimacy to others as
they saw fit, never looking at their own archaic glasshouses before
throwing stones at acclaimed fortified towers. Countries that
shamelessly lecture us in democracy, in development and in progress
whilst drowning in their own ignorance and medieval norms. Countries
that have become accustomed to being entirely owned by kings and princes
who have the sole right to distribute their national wealth granting
their associates whilst denying those who fall out of favour.
They
lectured Syria – a distinguished, virtuous, sovereign state, they
lectured her on honour whilst they themselves were immersed in the mud
of enslavement, infanticide and other medieval practices. After all
their efforts and subsequent failures, their masks fell from their
quivering faces, to reveal their perverse ambitions. A desire to
destabilize and destroy Syria by exporting their national product:
terrorism. They used their petrodollars to buy weapons, recruit
mercenaries and saturate airtime covering up their mindless brutality
with lies under the guise of the so-called “Syrian revolution that will
fulfil the aspirations of the Syrian people.”
Ladies
and Gentlemen, how is what has happened and continues to plague Syria,
meeting these aspirations? How can a Chechen, Afghani, Saudi, Turkish or
even French and English terrorists deliver on the aspirations of the
Syrian people, and with what? An Islamic state that knows nothing of
Islam except perverse Wahhabism? Who declared anyway that the Syrian
people aspire to live thousands of years in the past?
In Syria, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered and their foetuses killed
In
Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered
and their foetuses killed; women are raped, dead or alive, in practices
so heinous, so vile and repulsive that they can only be attributed to
their perverse doctrine. In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, men are
slaughtered in front of their children in the name of this revolution;
worse still, this is done whilst the children of these foreign
perpetrators sing and dance. In Syria, how can so-called revolutionaries
cannibalize a man’s heart and claim to promote freedom, democracy and a
better life?
Under
the pretext of the “Great Syrian Revolution,” civilians, clergymen,
women and children are killed, victims are indiscriminately blown up in
streets and buildings regardless of their political views or ideologies;
books and libraries are burned, graves are dug up and artifacts stolen.
In the name of the revolution, children are killed in their schools and
students in their universities, women are extorted in the name of jihad
al-nikah and other forms, mosques are shelled whilst worshippers kneel
at prayer, heads are severed and hung in the streets, people are burned
alive in a true holocaust that history and many countries will deny
without being accused of anti-Semitism.
In
the name of a revolution, “to free the oppressed Syrian people from the
regime and to spread democracy,” does a father blow himself up with his
wife and children to prevent foreign intruders from entering his home?
Most of us in this room are fathers – I ask you then, what would compel a
man to kill his own family to protect them from freedom fighting
monsters. This is what happened in Adra, a place that most of you have
not heard of but where the same alien monsters attacked: killing,
looting, beheading, slaughtering, raping and burning people alive. You
have heard nothing of this brutality for sure, yet you have heard of
other places where the same heinous crimes were committed and where the
same blood soaked finger was pointed at the Syrian Army and government.
And when these flagrant lies were no longer credible, they stopped
spinning their web of deceit.
This
is what their masters ordered them to do, these countries that
spearheaded the war against Syria, trying to increase their influence in
the region with bribes and money, exporting human monsters fully soaked
in abhorrent Wahhabi ideology, all at the expense of Syrian blood. From
this stage, loud and clear, you know as well as I do that they will not
stop in Syria, even if some sitting in this room refuse to acknowledge
or consider themselves immune.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, everything you have heard would not have been possible,
had our border sharing countries been good neighbours during these
challenging years. Unfortunately they were far from it; with
backstabbers to the North, silent bystanders to the truth in the West, a
weak South accustomed to doing the bidding of others, or the tired and
exhausted East still reeling from the plots to destroy it along with
Syria.
Misery and destruction, which has engulfed Syria, has been made possible by the decision of Erdogan’s government
Indeed,
this misery and destruction, which has engulfed Syria, has been made
possible by the decision of Erdogan’s government to invite and host
these criminal terrorists before they entered into Syria. Clearly,
oblivious to the fact that magic eventually turns on the magician, it is
now beginning to taste the sour seed it has sown. For terrorism knows
no religion, and is loyal only unto itself. Erdogan’s government has
recklessly morphed from a zero problems with its neighbours policy to
zero foreign policy and international diplomacy altogether, crucially
leaving it with zero credibility.
Nevertheless,
it continued on the same atrocious path falsely believing that the
dream of Sayyid Qutb and Mohammad Abdel Wahab before him was finally
being realized. They wreaked havoc from Tunisia, to Libya, to Egypt and
then to Syria, determined to achieve an illusion that only exists in
their sick minds. Despite the fact that it has proven to be a failure,
they nevertheless are still determined to pursue it. Logically speaking,
this can only be described as stupidity, because if you don’t learn
from history, you will lose sight of the present; and history tells us:
if your neighbour’s house is on fire, it is impossible for you to remain
safe.
Some
neighbours started fires within Syria whilst others recruited
terrorists from around the globe – and here we are confronted with
shockingly farcical double standards: 83 nationalities are fighting in
Syria – nobody denounces this, nobody condemns it, nobody reconsiders
their position – and they impertinently continue to call it a glorious
SYRIAN Revolution! While when a few scores of young resistant fighters
supported the Syrian Army in a few places, all hell broke loose and it
suddenly became foreign intervention! Demands were made for the
departure of foreign troops and the protection of Syrian sovereignty and
for it not to be violated. Here I affirm, Syria – the sovereign and
independent state, will continue to do whatever it takes to defend
herself with whatever means it deems necessary, without paying the least
bit of attention to any uproar, denunciations, statements or positions
expressed by others. These have been and always will be Syria’s
sovereign decisions.
They imposed sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk
Despite
all of this, the Syrian people remained steadfast; and the response was
to impose sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk. To
starve the population, pushing them into sickness and death under the
injustice of these sanctions. At the same time, factories were looted
and burned, crippling our food and pharmaceutical industries; hospitals
and healthcare centers were destroyed; our railroads and electricity
lines sabotaged, and even our places of worship – Christian and Muslim –
were not spared their terrorism.
When
all of this failed, America threatened to strike Syria, fabricating
with her allies, Western and Arab, the story about the use of chemical
weapons, which failed to convince even their own public, let alone ours.
Countries that celebrate democracy, freedom and human rights
regrettably only choose to speak the language of blood, war, colonialism
and hegemony. Democracy is imposed with fire, freedom with warplanes
and human rights by human killing, because they have become accustomed
to the world doing their bidding: if they want something, it will
happen; if they don’t, it won’t. They have heedlessly forgotten that the
perpetrators who blew themselves up in New York follow the same
doctrine and come from the same source as those blowing themselves up in
Syria. They have heedlessly forgotten that the terrorist that was in
America yesterday is in Syria today, and who knows where he will be tomorrow.
What is certain, however, is that he will not stop here. Afghanistan is
an ideal lesson for anyone who wants to learn – anyone! Unfortunately,
most do not want to learn; neither America nor some of the ‘civilized’
western countries that follow its lead, starting from the city of lights
to the kingdom over which “the sun never set,” in the past; despite the
fact that they have all felt the bitter taste of terrorism in the past.
And
then suddenly they became “Friends of Syria.” Four of these ‘friends’
are autocratic, oppressive monarchies that know nothing of a civil state
or democracy, whilst others are the same colonial powers which
occupied, pillaged and partitioned Syria less than one hundred years
ago. These so called ‘friends’ are now convening conferences to publicly
declare their friendship with the Syrian people, whilst covertly
facilitating their hardship and destroying their livelihoods. They
openly express their outrage over the humanitarian plight of Syrians
whilst deceiving the international community of their complicity. If you
were truly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria, you
would remove your strangle hold on her economy by lifting the sanctions
and the embargo, and by partnering with her government in tightening
security by fighting the influx of weapons and terrorists. Only then can
we assure you that we will be well as we once were, without your deep
concern for our well-being.
Some
of you may be asking yourselves: Are foreigners the sole manufacturers
of the happenings in Syria? No Ladies and Gentlemen, Syrians amongst us
here, having been legitimized by foreign agendas, have played a
contributing role as facilitators and implementers. They did this at the
expense of Syrian blood and the people whose aspirations they claim to
represent, whilst they themselves were divided hundreds of times and
their leaders on the ground were fleeing far and wide. They sold
themselves to Israel becoming her eyes on the ground, and her fingers on
the trigger for Syria’s destruction; and when they failed, Israel
intervened directly to reduce the capabilities of the Syrian Army and
thus ensuring the continued implementation of her decades old plan for
Syria.
Our people were being slaughtered while opposition figures legitimized by foreign agendas were living in five star hotels
Our
people were being slaughtered while they were living in five star
hotels; they opposed from abroad, met abroad betraying Syria and selling
themselves to the highest foreign bidder. And yet, they still claim to
speak in the name of the Syrian people! No, Ladies and Gentlemen, anyone
wishing to speak on behalf of the Syrian people cannot be a traitor to
their cause and an agent for their enemies. Those wishing to speak on
behalf of the people of Syria should do so from within her borders:
living in her destroyed houses, sending their children to her schools in
the morning not knowing if they will return safe from mortar shelling,
tolerating the freezing cold winters because of the shortage in heating
oil and queuing for hours to buy bread for their families because
sanctions have prevented us from importing wheat when we were once
exporters. Anyone wanting to speak in the name of the Syrian people
should first endure three years of terrorism, confronting it head on,
and then come here and speak on behalf of the Syrian people.
Syrian has welcomed hundreds of international journalists and facilitated their mobility
Ladies
and gentlemen, the Syrian Arab Republic – people and state, has
fulfilled its duties. It has welcomed hundreds of international
journalists and facilitated their mobility, security and access; and
they in turn have reflected the stark and horrific realities they
witnessed to their audiences, realities that have perplexed many Western
media organisations who couldn’t bear their propaganda and narrative
being exposed and contradicted. The examples are too many to count. We
allowed international aid and relief organizations into the country, but
the clandestine agents of certain parties sitting here, obstructed them
from reaching those in dire need of aid. They came under terrorist
attack several times, whilst we, as a state, did our duty in protecting
them and facilitating their work. We issued numerous amnesties and
released thousands of prisoners, some even members of armed groups, at
the anger and dismay of their victim’s families; these families though,
like the rest of us, ultimately accepted that Syria’s interests come
before anything else, and hence we must conceal our wounds and rise
above hatred and rancour.
What
have you done, you who claim to speak on behalf of the Syrian people.
Where is your vision for this great country? Where are your ideas or
your political manifesto? Who are your agents of change on the ground
other than your armed criminal gangs? I am certain that you have nothing
and this is only too apparent in the areas that your mercenaries have
occupied or to use your words “liberated.”
In
these areas, have you freed the population or have you hijacked their
moderate culture to enforce your radical and oppressive practices? Have
you implemented your development agenda by building schools and health
centres? No, you have destroyed them and allowed polio to return after
it had previously been eradicated in Syria. Have you protected Syria’s
artifacts and museums? No, you have looted our national sites for your
personal profit. Have you demonstrated your commitment to justice and
human rights? No, you have enforced public executions and beheadings. In
short, you have done nothing at all except muster the disgrace and
shame of begging America to strike Syria. Even the opposition, over
which you are the self-appointed masters and guardians, do not
acknowledge you or the methods in which you manage your own affairs, let
alone the affairs of a country.
A
country they want to homogenize; not in the sectarian, ethnic or
religious sense, but rather in a warped ideological sense. Anyone
against them, whether Christian or Muslim, is an infidel; they killed
Muslims of all sects and targeted Syrian Christians with severity. Even
nuns and bishops were targeted, kidnapping them after they attacked
Ma’loula, the last community that still speaks the language of Jesus
Christ. They did all this to force Syrian Christians to flee their
country. But little did they know, that in Syria we are one. When
Christianity is attacked all Syrians are Christians, when mosques are
targeted all Syrians are Muslims. Every Syrian is from Raqqa, Lattakia,
Sweida, Homs or the bleeding Aleppo when any one of these places is
targeted. Their abhorrent attempts to sow sectarian and religious
sedition will never be embraced by any level-headed Syrian. In short,
Ladies and Gentlemen, your “glorious Syrian revolution” has left no
mortal sin uncommitted.
There
is another side to this dark gloomy picture. A light at the end of the
tunnel shinning through the Syrian people’s determination and
steadfastness, the Syrian Army’s courage in protecting our citizens and
the Syrian state’s resilience and perseverance. During everything that
has happened, there are states that have shown us true friendship,
honest states that stood on the side of right against wrong, even when
the wrong was clear for all to see. On behalf of the Syrian people and
state, I would like to thank Russia and China for respecting Syria’s
sovereignty and independence. Russia has been a true champion on the
international stage strongly defending, not only with words but also
with deeds, the founding principles of the United Nations of respecting
the sovereignty of states. Similarly China, the BRICS countries, Iran,
Iraq and other Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to African and
Latin American countries, have also genuinely safeguarded the
aspirations of the Syrian people and not the ambitions of other
governments for Syria.
The Syrian people, like other people of the region, aspire to more freedom, justice and human rights
Yes,
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Syrian people, like other people of the
region, aspire to more freedom, justice and human rights; they aspire to
more plurality and democracy, to a better Syria, a safe, prosperous and
healthy Syria. They aspire to building strong institutions not
destroying them, to safeguarding our national artifacts and heritage
sites not looting and demolishing them. They aspire to a strong national
army, which protects our honour, our people and our national wealth, an
army that defends Syria’s borders, her sovereignty and independence.
They do not, Ladies and Gentlemen, aspire to a mercenary army ‘Free’ to
kidnap civilians for ransom or to use them as human shields, ‘Free’ to
steal humanitarian aid, extort the poor and illegally trade in the
organs of living women and children, ‘Free’ to cannibalise human hearts
and livers, barbequing heads, recruiting child soldiers and raping
women. All of this is done with the might of arms; arms provided by
countries, represented here, who claim to be championing “moderate
groups”. Tell us, for God’s sake, where is the moderation in everything I
have described?
Where
are these vague moderate groups that you are hiding behind? Are they
the same old groups that continue to be supported militarily and
publicly by the West, that have undergone an even uglier face-lift in
the hope of convincing us that they are fighting terrorism? We all know
that no matter how hard their propaganda machine tries to polish their
image under the name of moderation, their extremism and terrorism is one
and the same. They know, as we all do, that under the pretext of
supporting these groups, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are being armed in
Syria, Iraq and other countries in the region.
This
is the reality, Ladies and Gentlemen, so wake up to the undeniable
reality that the West is supporting some Arab countries to supply lethal
weapons to al-Qaeda. The West publicly claims to be fighting terrorism,
whilst in fact it is covertly nourishing it. Anyone who cannot see this
truth is either ignorantly blind or wilfully so in order to finish what
they have begun.
Is
this the Syria that you want? The loss of thousands of martyrs and our
once cherished safety and national security replaced with apocalyptic
devastation. Are these the aspirations of the Syrian people that you
wanted to fulfill? No, Ladies and Gentlemen, Syria will not remain so,
and that is why we are here. Despite all that has been done by some, we
have come to save Syria: to stop the beheadings, to stop the
cannibalizing and the butchering. We have come to help mothers and
children return to the homes they were driven out of by terrorists. We
have come to protect the civil and open-minded nature of the state, to
stop the march of the Tatars and the Mongols across our region. We have
come to prevent the collapse of the entire Middle East, to protect
civilization, culture and diversity, and to preserve the dialogue of
civilizations in the birthplace of religions. We have come to protect
tolerant Islam that has been distorted, and to protect the Christians of
the Levant. We are here to tell our Syrian expatriates, to return to
their home country because they will always be foreigners anywhere else,
and regardless of our differences we are all still brothers and
sisters.
We
have come to stop terrorism as other countries that have experienced
its bitter taste have done, whilst affirming loudly and consistently
that a dialogue between Syrians is the only solution; but as with other
countries that have been struck by terrorism, we have a constitutional
duty to defend our citizens and we shall continue to strike terrorism
that attacks Syrians regardless of their political affiliations. We have
come to hold those accountable, for as long as particular countries
continue to support terrorism, this conference will bear no fruit.
Political pluralism and terrorism cannot coexist in the same landscape.
Politics can only prosper by fighting terrorism; it cannot grow in its
shadow.
Nobody
has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a
government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except
Syrians themselves
We
are here as representatives of the Syrian people and the state; but let
it be clear to all, – and experience is the best proof – that nobody
has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a
government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except
Syrians themselves; this is their constitutional right and duty.
Therefore, whatever agreement is reached here will be subject to a
national referendum. We are tasked with conveying our people’s desires,
not with determining their destiny; those who want to listen to the will
of the Syrian people should not appoint themselves as their
spokesperson. Syrians alone have the right to choose their government,
their parliament and their constitution; everything else is just talk
and has no significance.
Finally,
to all those here and everyone watching around the world: in Syria we
are fighting terrorism, terrorism which has destroyed and continues to
destroy; terrorism which since the 1980’s Syria has been calling, on
deaf ears, for a unified front to defeat it. Terrorism has struck in
America, France, Britain, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan; the list
goes on and it continues to spread. Let us all cooperate to fight it,
let’s work hand in hand to stop its black, horrifying and obscurantist
ideology. Then, let us as Syrians stand united to focus on Syria and
start rebuilding its social fabric and material structures. As I said,
dialogue is the foundation to this process, and despite our gratitude to
the host country, we affirm that the real dialogue between Syrians
should in fact be on Syrian soil and under Syrian skies. Exactly one
year ago, the Syrian government put forward its vision for a political
solution; think of how much innocent blood we would have saved had some
countries resorted to reason instead of terrorism and destruction. For a
whole year, we have been calling for dialogue, but terrorism continued
to strike at the Syrian state, her people and institutions.
Today,
in this gathering of Arab and Western powers, we are presented with a
simple choice: we can choose to fight terrorism and extremism together
and to start a new political process, or you can continue to support
terrorism in Syria. Let us reject and isolate the black hands and the
false faces, which publicly smile but covertly feed terrorist ideology,
striking Syria today, but ultimately spreading to infect us all. This is
the moment of truth and destiny; let us rise to the challenge.
Thank you.
Al-Moallem: We hope that Geneva Conference be a first step to start Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Syria
Later,
Minister al-Moallem said, “The orchestra that we have heard from some
sides today and the content of some hostile speeches from some states,
to the extent that in some minutes we seemed to have heard old rhetoric
with no difference except for the place of delivering them, do not
deserve to be answered.”
Concluding
the second session of the conference, al-Moallem added, “Because we
want to stop bloodshed in Syria, to protect the lives of citizens, to
build Syria again and because, as a state, we play our constitutional,
political, security and social role to save Syria from what is going on,
we are here and we hope the Geneva conference will be a first step on
the way to start Syrian-Syrian dialogue on the Syrian territories.”
“I
thank those who have stood by us from the friendly countries for three
years so far and we say to all that we will continue hitting terrorism
wherever it was with one hand and we will build Syria democratically,
politically and socially with the other,” al-Moallem said.
Minister
al-Moallem added, “I say to those who are interfering in the Syrian
affairs through any sort of interference: three years and you are still
trying; have you not become desperate yet? … Enough! … Put your hands
off Syria so that we can indeed achieve the people’s aspirations of a
secure and developed life.”
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