President Al-Assad: Baath Party Targeted because of its Nationalist Ideas

DAMASCUS, (ST)- President Bashar Al-Assad, the Regional Secretary of the Baath Arab Socialist Party (BASP), has stressed that the war that has been imposed on the Syrian people for more than six years should motivate the Baath Party to enhance its presence and popularity through creating new contact mechanisms that cope with the current circumstances and changes.

 Chairing an enlarged meeting with BASP’s Central Committee on Saturday, President Al-Assad said that since the beginning of the crisis in Syria the Baath Party has been targeted for its nationalist ideas.

The president added that Syria’s enemies have used all its tools in their war on Syria, mainly the Wahabi and Muslim Brotherhood terrorism, pointing out that the battle between the Baath Party and the extremist currents isn’t new; rather it goes back to the 60s of last century.

“This is normal if we take the party’s nationalist ideas and the popularity it has enjoyed over the past decades into consideration,” President l-Assad clarified.

He went on to say that one of the most important goals of the war on Syria was to hit nationalist thinking and force Syria to give up its pan-Arabism stances, affirming that Syria belongs to the Arab nation, thus all attempts to achieve these goals won’t succeed.

The president noted the Baath Party’s key role in enhancing Syria’s pan-Arabism position.

President Al-Assad urged reactivating the party’s work and developing its ideas as to preserve and consolidate the young generations’ national spirit and to help these generations take part in drawing up the party’s programs and plans.

Also during the meeting, President Al-Assad talked about the situation in Syria, clarifying that the recent American aggression on al-Shayrat airbase comes as a response to the terrorists’ defeats in Hama countryside and to the advances achieved by the Syrian army in the north and east of the country.

He added that western countries, namely the United States, interfere to help the terrorists every time the Syrian army achieves gains in the battle against terrorist groups.

 President Al-Assad said that the war on terrorism won’t stop as long as there is a terrorist desecrating the sacredness of the Syrian soil. He said that Syria will continue confronting the western scenarios aiming to undermine Syria’s unity and sovereignty in parallel with political work, either in the political process in Geneva and Astana or in the policy of reconciliation with the purpose of ending the shedding of the Syrian blood.

During the meeting, a new central committee of the party was formed and changes in the regional leadership formation were made.

  Hamda Mustafa