President al-Assad Meeting with Rural Damascus Baathists: The Power of the Baath Party lies in Natural Affiliation to Arabism, Islam
DAMASCUS,(ST)_. President Bashar al-Assad, Regional Secretary of the Baath Arab Socialist Party stressed today on the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the March 8th Revolution that the strength of the party lies in its commitment to Arabism and Islam and in challenging attempts to undermining nationalist thought, noting that unmasking f the conspiracy ensures the party an environment optimum for dialogue to strengthen the State efforts to achieve reconciliation in parallel with striking terrorism.
Meeting with Rural Damascus Branch of the Baath Party leadership and affiliated bodies, President Assad stressed that Rural Damascus enjoys special status and that work in this area should focus on intellectual and ideological aspects and efforts to be dedicated towards services pertinent to people’s daily life as well.
President al-Assad said that the media campaigns that targeted the party over the past years with the aim of creating a state of frustration within the Baathists through intensifying charges against the party and undermining the morale of the Baathists, stressing that all these attempts were addressed, based on the fact of the Party potential contribution to building the Syrian state and enhance its strength during the past decades.
President al-Assad emphasized that “ maintaining nationalist thought and true Islam helps preserving the national identity and foiling attempts to implant extremist ideology within our societies to hit these two pillars, pointing out that the Baath Party large base comes from Arab national affiliation.
President al-Assad said: we are dealing today with a society which has become of a clearer vision than ever before about the conspiracy and that the crisis prompted people to more political attention and the desire to debate, a matter which gives the party a room to move through logical and rational dialogue.
He pointed to the party’s ability to stay standstill during the crisis, adding that ” individual defections that had occurred were healthy in helping the party to get rid of opportunists and restart strongly “, stressing the need to continue working earnestly to get rid of all opportunists.
An atmosphere of transparency prevailed the meeting through presentations and discussions that touched upon several issues, linked to Party affairs, and to Syrian internal and external politics, alike and stress was laid on the importance of such discussions for the development of the party and its performance in various fields, especially the relationship with others.
President al-Assad indicated the important role of the Baathists in the ongoing reconciliation and that the party should play a greater role in this regard by creating contact mechanisms with people in support of the State ‘ efforts.
President al-Assad warned that attempts by terrorism supporting parties to convert Syria to a weak state are still ongoing, stressing ” continuous striking of terrorism, in parallel with reconciliations.”
President al-Assad stressed that the challenges of the post-crisis are more serious than the challenges of the crisis itself, especially extremism and hirelings, explaining that what is required in the next stage is to create the suitable mechanisms for dialogue, fight corruption, promotion of national thought and continue solving people’s everyday problems, stressing that people’s everyday issues are the most important now.
In a related context, President Assad talked about the issue of reconstruction, especially in the countryside, where it ” constitutes one of the most important challenges of the post-crisis,” pointing out that the reconstruction process will be a great opportunity to re-organize the affected areas and the damaged homeowners and real estate to be given the opportunity to improve their financial conditions, besides contributing to reactivate investment and create job opportunities.
President al-Assad indicated the need to communicate with the political forces on the Syrian arena, to know who can be an ally with the Baath Party ideology and project, while the efforts of the leadership at the external level are based on strengthening alliances with friendly countries such as Russia, Iran and China and with the Arab parties, which intersect with the Baath Party theory and orientation.
T. Fateh