President Al-Assad addresses the People’s Assembly marking the beginning of its 4th legislative term
President Bashar Al-Assad on Sunday, August 25th, addressed the People’s Assembly marking the beginning of the Assembly’s 4th legislative term.
In his speech, President Al-Assad congratulated the People’s Assembly members on starting the 4th Legislative Term and on wining the confidence of voters, calling on them to spare no effort in the service of the people as to perpetuate this confidence.
The people’s Assembly is the most important state institution and its effect won’t be tangible if development is not comprehensive in all institutions due to the close relation between these institutions, he said.
President Assad explained that the immunity of the People’s Assembly members does not mean that they can violate the law; rather, it means that these members should be the first to implement the laws as they are responsible for approving them.
He pointed out that the role of the People’s Assembly is to ask about the tools when it approves a law or makes a policy and when it does not ask about how to apply the law it, it will be, together with the executive authority, responsible for this negligence.
President Al-Assad said that “severe economic crises are a state of immunodeficiency that is not visible to the naked eye, and wars expose the severity this state of weakness, therefore, we must deeply examine the economic policies that we have adopted over decades”.
President Assad went on to say that in the light of developments in the region and the world and the changing rules of economy, politics, security, culture and other fields, it is not possible for a policy to be correct all the time, so we have to discuss our policies, pointing out that the government is required to achieve the goals determined in the set policies, and this government needs tools to implement the objectives, and one of these tools may be changing the policies.
He added that it is known that Syria is going through difficult circumstances, and that difficult options are built on facts, so there is a need to determine the most appropriate and least harmful solutions for Syria.
Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises
The President made it clear that at among most important options is supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, because they constitute an essential part of economy. Small enterprises are central to productivity and growth not a solution to a temporary problem, in fact they don’t only support the economy; rather, they are the backbone of this economy, he said.
On the political situation, President Al-Assad said that Syria is one of the conflict arenas in the world. “The choice before us is between being affected only or being influencing and achieving balance, so, in order for this balance to be complete, we must work hard, find solutions, and refuse to submit to frustration and work to change them.
He added that “the current situation in the world suffers from a crisis, whose repercussions on us necessitates working faster to fix what can be fixed regardless of the pain caused by a friend’s stab. This is how we dealt with the initiatives regarding the relation with Turkey that were presented by several parties, including “Russia, Iran and Iraq”. He stressed that the damage was accumulating not only on the Syrian side but also on the Turkish side in each day that passed without progress.
“We dealt with these initiatives based on our principles and interests which usually don’t conflict with those of the neighboring countries if the intentions are not harmful, as sovereignty and international law are consistent with the principles of all parties that are serious about restoring normal relations,” the president clarified, noting that combating terrorism is a common interest for both parties.
Syria always stresses that Turkey must withdraw from the lands it has occupied and stop its support for terrorism
President Al-Assad said “we did not occupy the lands of a neighboring country and now we have to withdraw, and we did not support terrorism and now we have to stop supporting it. The solution is to be frank and identify where the problem is”.
He stressed that restoring the relation requires first of all removing the causes that led to the destruction of this relation, pointing out that “we will not give up any of our rights” and that “any negotiation process needs a reference to rely on in order to succeed, and one of the reasons for not reaching results in previous meetings is the absence of a reference.
“Syria always stresses that Turkey must withdraw from the lands it has occupied and stop its support for terrorism,” President Al-Assad reiterated, stressing that sovereignty is the principle on which Syria builds its stances.
President Al-Assad: “When we talk about sovereignty, the occupied Syrian Golan should be mentioned”
“When we talk about sovereignty, the occupied Syrian Golan should be mentioned, because people in the occupied Golan have given us many lessons. They have proven that the absence of sovereignty over their land does not mean the fall of patriotism from their conscience; rather it means the enhancement of this patriotism. They also have proven that occupying the land does not mean selling one’s honor and that their national belonging is rooted and their souls are cheap in defense of Syria”, the President clarified.
President Al-Assad concluded his speech by affirming that resistance fighters in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen are a role model and an example for us to follow on the path to liberation, dignity, honor and complete independence.
Hamda Mustafa