São Paulo – Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad said today (1st) that Brazil may operate as a mediator in the peace process in the Middle East. “[Brazil has] relations with Israel and good relations with Syria and they have good credibility. We trust them. So they have to play that role to instigate the peace process,” he said in an exclusive interview to ANBA after a meeting with the board at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in São Paulo.
The matter was discussed yesterday (30th) by the president of Syria and his Brazilian colleague, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in Brasília. After the meeting, president Lula’s special advisor for international affairs, Marco Aurélio Garcia, said that the prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, may visit Brazil in August and that this will be “a good occasion to develop this dialogue”.
Apart from the Palestinian question, which opposes Arabs and Israelis, Syria has a private dispute with Israel involving the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied during the Six Day War, in 1967, and under Israeli control to date.
Assad said today that he believes that Brazil should make an effort in the sense of relaunching the peace process, currently paralysed, and recommended joint operation with Turkey, as was the case in negotiations regarding the Iranian nuclear program.
The Syrian president also spoke about the possibility of Syria negotiating a free trade agreement with the Mercosur. Read the interview below:
ANBA – In your address yesterday, you mentioned that in the meeting with president Lula, you spoke about studying the negotiation of a free trade agreement between the Mercosur and Syria. What proposals did you make to president Lula regarding the matter?
Bashar Al Assad – We started speaking exclusively about the summits [South America-Arab Countries], which have, shall we say, an arm. What is our economic arm? Your arm is the Mercosur, that is the organisation, we need to institutionalize this relation rather than only talking about politics and statements. This is the situation. The Mercosur should have proposals for every other country – or maybe for the Arab world. That depends on their vision – in order to have certain kinds of agreements. Let’s talk about free trade agreements. Instead of my signing a free trade agreement with Brazil, I’ll sign with the Mercosur. This is better for me and stronger for Brazil and for any other South American country that is in Mercosur. This is one of the proposals that I mentioned yesterday to president Lula.
Yesterday you and president Lula spoke about the role Brazil can play in the peace process in the Middle East. What else can Brazil do to contribute?
They can play the role of mediator. They have relations with Israel and good relations with Syria and they have good credibility. We trust them. So they have to play that role to instigate the peace process, because now it is paralysed. You need to prepare the environment for the negotiation, you cannot just say: ‘We have to start negotiations’. Brazil (maybe in cooperation with Turkey, which is an important player in that region – at the end you need someone who is close geographically, because sometimes you need daily contact -) can forge a vision with the Turkish and in cooperation with Syria about how to relaunch the peace process. We talked about it yesterday and I think they [Brazilian leaders] are going to make an effort in that regard.
*Translated by Mark Ament