Al-Moallem: “When Iraq is Fine Syria is Fine”
DAMASCUS, (ST)-Deputy Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Waleed al-Moallem and his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari held a press conference at the Damascus International Airport on Monday.
Al-Moallem asserted that “Iraq and Syria are at the same frontline against terrorism”.
“When Iraq is fine, Syria is fine, and we are confident that the Iraqi leaders will spare no effort to support Syria as to break the siege imposed on the country,” al-Moallem said.
Replying a question about the Jordanian Foreign Minister’s remarks on Jordan’s training of Syrian clans on its lands, the Syrian top diplomat said “this brings nothing new, but it proves what we have earlier said about Jordan’s hosting of training camps for terrorists.”
Regarding Egypt’s stance towards what is going in the region, al-Moallem hoped that Egypt will play its historical role and do its duty in this connection.
“We haven’t yet witnessed such a stance by Egypt maybe due to special reasons or because Egypt has its own battle against terrorism and the Moslem Brotherhood,” al-Moallem said.
He added “we sympathize with the brotherly people of Egypt,” affirming that history proves that Syria, Egypt and today Iraq can change the course of events in the region.
On his part, the Iraqi minister stressed that “Syria defends all its neighboring countries. This is an obligation that all countries should commit themselves to in order to eliminate terrorism.”
Al-Jaafari wondered “how a neighboring country can feel secure while terrorism keeps killing children and everybody without distinction near them.”
He said that there is a specific level of coordination between Syria and Iraq on fighting terrorism and “We are looking forward to boosting this coordination as to stop the danger threatening the two countries.”
Hamda Mustafa