into Syria itself. |
It's not about whether the accusations are true or not, |
Let me first thank President Bush for his concern about Lebanon and the fair and free elections that will happen in May, ... Now President Bush can focus his attention on the really terrible occupation of the Palestinian territories and the occupation of Syrian territories and Lebanese territories by Israel. |
No other incident has caused [such] terrible damage to Syria in the past 30 years. |
Please be careful about what is going on, |
Please be careful about what is going on. This is not an easy game. It's not something to play with. |
Please help us free this region from all weapons of mass destruction. ... Please inspect every country in the Middle East, ... You know very well that Israel is stockpiling nuclear weapons. |
President Assad has said that if any Syrian individual has been party to this crime or implicated in the assassination of Hariri, then he has committed a treasonous crime. |
Right now nobody, even in Damascus itself, knows the actual timetable, |
Shops were ransacked, cars were burned, schools were burned, hospitals were burned. Yes, lots of people were arrested, and this is a normal reaction. It would happen everywhere in the world, including the United States itself when it had riots in its major cities. Now these people will face criminal charges, and if they are found guilty they will bear the consequences of their deeds. If not, they will be released, just like any judicial process in the world. |
sinister campaign against Syria. |
Syria has the political will and desire to constructively engage with the United States and to improve relations with the United States. |
The first time we ever heard about our non-cooperation was when we read this report. |
There is no hesitation about this, as the political decision has been taken. We are withdrawing every single official from Lebanon, whether he is a regular army soldier, or whether he is in the security or intelligence forces. |
This has included our support for the elections in Iraq, our securing the borders. We have done everything possible to secure the borders between Syria and Iraq. |