President Al-Assad sends a message to Pope Francis

VATICAN, (ST) – “Syria [people and leadership] highly appreciates  the Pontiff’s stances as regards the crisis in Syria and for the transparent stance against aggression on Syria which expressed by calling for a worldwide day  pray and fasting for the sake of “Dear Syria”, reads a message sent by President Bashar Al-Assad on Saturday to Pope Francis .

The message was conveyed by Minister of State Joseph Sweid during his meeting with the Pope’s Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin.

The message zeroed in on that the crisis will be solved through national dialogue among the Syrians and under a Syrian leadership without foreign intervention as to enable the Syrians, who are only have the sole constitutional right, to determine their future and leadership through ballots.

“based on this principled stance, the Syrian government is  ready to take part  in the Geneva 2 conference on Syria .And  combating the terrorism that targets citizens is a decisive factor in making any peaceful solution to the crisis a success, “underlined the message.

The message further made it clear  that halting  terrorism requires the countries which are already involved in supporting the armed terrorist groups to stop providing any sort of military, logistic or training support, referring to  some of Syria’s neighbors and other known countries in the Middle East and abroad.

” the Syrian government is  keen to carry out its constitutional duty of protecting its citizens, regardless of their race and religion, from the crimes of the takfiri groups that target their homes, schools and places of  worship with terrorist bombings or arbitrary shelling, “asserted President Al-Assad.

Archbishop Parolin, for his part, said that his holiness is constantly following the situation in Syria and is deeply concerned over the suffering of the Syrian people.

” Pope Francis affirms the need to solve the crisis in Syria through dialogue among the Syrians without foreign intervention, “added Parolin.

Parolin relayed Pope Francis’ salutations to President Al-Assad and his prayers for peace in Syria, the cradle of civilizations and religions.

The meeting was attended by the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Dominique Mamberti and Syria’s Assistant Foreign and Expatriates Minister Hussam Eddin Ela.

It is to be noted that Pope Francis led in September 2013 a worldwide day of prayer for peace in Syria and sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin ,who was hosting the G20 summit, telling world powers that any military solution in Syria would be a “futile pursuit”.

The Vatican ,which has permanent observer status at the United Nations ,also has a representative to U.N. organizations in Geneva.

M.D