H.E. Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Minister of Expatriates, at the University of Montreal, Canada

20 Sept. 2005

Dr. Shaaban:

 First allow me to thank your being here and I would like also to thank our Ambassador to Ottawa Mr. Jameel Saker and our Honorary Consulate Mr. Fares Al-Attar and you Professors for this opportunity. Let me start by talking about emigration. Syria is a country that always has people who migrate from it and always has hosted people who came to it. The Syrian and the Lebanese who immigrated always established institutions in the countries they immigrated to, and in those countries there were no Syrian and Lebanese there were always one people. In Argentina I met with the foreign Minister and many other officials and I said to them that I would like to thank you because Syrian people are very happy here. They told me that they built the country, you don't have to thank us because their contribution is very much acknowledged here.  I'm so much proud of the Syrian-Lebanese hospital in Sao Paulo which was established by Syrian Lebanese women in 1920, you know, as an NGO, now it is the best hospital. In the philosophy of the hospital is that they don't only address the physical illness, it's run by volunteers, it's an amazing work to see. There are also so many schools, so many blocks that were built by Syrian Lebanese. They are estimated by fifteen millions from Syrian Lebanese origin in Brazil alone. So, what I'm trying to say that my grandfather spent 27 years in Argentina then he came back, that has two impacts; first, we are part of the world. I thought that Argentina is next to Syria when I was a child, I didn't think that it's so far away. Second, I came from a family that was dominated by women, it was my grandmother who bought lands and sold lands and did the whole business.

Nowadays, I think we have a different kind of migration in U.S.A., Canada and Europe. Now we have tens of thousands of doctors in the United States for example. The only migration happening into Syria was when the neighboring countries had crisis in their countries. I don't want to talk about history now, but the migration was from Turkey, from Lebanon when they had a civil war, now from Iraq where churches where bombarded, from Turkey whom we have a long boarders with them the Kurds migrated to Syria from there. We gave them nationality then there was, as you know, the issue of human rights and now it's something quite complicated. And also there is the migration of the Palestinians, and they are always with us, we have about half a million Palestinians in our country. They were uprooted from their country in 1948 and 1967.

   The philosophy of Syria regarding the Syrians abroad, and I'm the Minister of Expatriates, that we are all citizens of the world and wherever Syrians are could be useful to the international community. We are very proud of the Syrian communities wherever they are and we allow double nationality so Syrian people don't have to choose between Syria and the other country. And our leadership, whether the Late President Hafez Al-Assad or our President Dr. Bashar Al-Assad, always emphasized that the good Syrian is the one who loves the country who adopted and loves his home country Syria. A good Syrian German is good for Syria, a good Syrian American is good for Syria, a good Syrian Canadian is good for Syria. So there is no clash of loyalty between being loyal to the new country and being loyal to Syria, quite the contrary they complement each other. But now with all these highly qualified Syrians everywhere our policy is to allow them, to ask them to help us whether in investments, ideas, medicine. There are many fields in which we have very highly qualified Syrians. And for that reason I had a conference last October which was attended by Syrian expatriates all over the world. I'm  thinking in a conference for the Arab descends nor only for the Syrian descends because  I believe as an Arab woman and from most of our community abroad they speak Arabic language and they share the history and the culture. The conference I'm thinking of is the conference that gathering all the Arab and Syrian citizens from Arab descends who reached a senior positions in their countries. I want to do a brain storming with them, i.e. in this difficult time how we could build the better relations with the world and with the world at large because there is certainly a problem we are suffering from A: in the region  because of the difficult situation, B: in our relations with the west and with the outside world. As someone who lived in the west for many years I sometimes feel very difficulty to overcome to put ourselves outside our system, and I'm thinking with the work with the western system in different terms. So we have to take ourselves out of our frame of mind and to try to think how the western system works. That's not an easy thing to do especially there is a resistance inside our countries of allowing a different system because there were always people who had a special interest in what they had or they were and are unable to understand the mechanism of the other system. So, it's a battle which I feel Syrians abroad are the ones who can help in because they are exposed, they understand and they are also they love their country and they work the best for both. So the Arab expatriates, I feel, are the one who can make that bridge in the best way possible because they are capable and they have no interest in this gap between the Arab world and the Western world.

   If I can move smoothly on that, after nine eleven this gap has widened between the Arab world in particular and the Muslim world in general on the one hand and the Western world in the other. I was in the recent days participating in Clinton Global Initiative and I had more than one opportunity to talk and to participate in more than one panel in which I said that I feel the language that had been used- and I'm of course with the name of my government I want to thank the Canadian government for its stands for the Middle East issues, they didn't go with the United States to the war on Iraq and we know the pressure that had been exerted, and unfortunately there are not many Arab countries differentiate between the stands of Canada and the stands of the U.S.A. -  I said after nine eleven the gap has widened between the Arab world and the western world partly because of the language that had been used, you know, we against them, we the civilized world, we the advanced countries, I was in New York on nine eleventh and they were commemorating the memory of the victims of nine eleventh and Juliani on the T.V. said "because the Americans are free people…", you know, I don't know people who are not free. All people in the world are free and that is why I said in Clinton Global Initiative that statement is a confront to me because what does he mean that the Americans are free people. God has created all of us free, it's relative to our political systems whether our political systems are democratic or half democratic but people are free because all of us are the sons and daughters of God, we feel at least we are free. Or when they say the civilized countries, you know, have to face terror threats. For me, all countries have to face these terror threats, every human being has to face these terror threats and work against them. I certainly, as a Syrian woman, feel that I came from a very civilized country, my country is the one that  invented the alphabet three thousands and five hundreds ago, I think this is a huge contribution to humanity. Without the alphabet what people could have done?? It was invented in Syria. We are the one who invented soaps two thousands and five hundreds years ago and we still make Gar soap made of olives oil.

      So the Arab world is passing through a difficult stage of their history and that's definitely true. And they are at a very weak point in their history that's true. But this needs help, it doesn't need stress or war or occupation or boycott or sanctions. That was definitely not the way to do about it. Particularly after the war on Iraq, it's not the war in Iraq it's the war on Iraq, it has proven that it's not the way to bring freedom and democracy to the region. And if I can remind your kind attention that before the United States launched that war I personally came with our foreign minister, Mr. Faroup Al-Sharaa, four times to the Security Council in February 2003 and we tried extremely hard with Germany, France, Russia at that time because we were members of the Security Council and they are permanent members of the Security Council and our argument was this: first there can be no WMD in Iraq after ten years of sanctions and huge embargo on Iraq and the Iraqi people. Second, the way to solve problems in the region is first to end the Israeli occupation of our territories and to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict because certainly that is the cancer of the region. Third, the war on Iraq would broaden the fertile ground for the terrorists because it would only produce chaos and that's what the terrorists would love to have and therefore this would undermine the war on terrorism it would not help the war on terrorism, and you remember that time they always talked about the war on terrorism and that was the pretext to go to war after Afghanistan and to go to war on Iraq.

   I don't want really to go with you to the stands of Syria but I would like to draw your kind attention that's not only here Syria said thing turned out to be true but also. But if you want to make a study of the Syrian stands for the last thirty years you find that Syria closed our borders with Iraq twenty years ago because the Late President realized that Saddam is a very dangerous man and he certainly tried to lobby all the Arabs around this idea but nobody was able to listen. Syria was the only country in the Arab world who stood against Saddam in his war with Iran while the United States supported Saddam in his war with Iran. And the Late President Assad gave many speeches saying that this war was invented by Saddam for no reason, it coasted millions of people in both sides. When Kuwait was occupied by Saddam Syria stood against that occupation and it sent troops with the United States to liberate Kuwait.

    When Bush the father put a peace initiative on the table it was Syria who helped to launch the initiative. We spent ten years working negotiating with the Israelis to make the peace agreement. It was Syria who was forthcoming and tried so hard to make peace, to reach a peace agreement, and I just saw Mr. President Clinton few days ago and we remembered these things with Madline Alubright. In January 2000 I was in Sheverdstown with where we were negotiating the  peace settlements and we all thought that within two weeks this agreement will be signed. But that time Barak had elections and he was worried about the public opinion and he refused to sign and to conclude the agreement and that's what mentioned by president Clinton not by me in his book because this was the real issue.

    All Arab countries had put an initiative on the table in Beirut in 2002. the twenty two Arab countries announcing that they are ready to make peace with Israel if Israel would withdraw to the lines of 4 June 1967 which is a Security Council resolutions 242 and 228 and which is the decision of the International Legitimacy. And this initiative was reiterated in 2005 in Algiers and as you know it was Sharon who came to New York and said I would not withdraw to the lines of 4 June1967, I would not discuss Jerusalem, I would not discuss the rights of the Palestinians refugees.

     What's happening in the region really now is that force is overtaking diplomacy and policy and rights and international legitimacy. Israel has nuclear weapons, supported by the United States. Withdrawing from Gaza, Gaza represents one percent of Palestine, it has no water, no job, no economy, land and sea and sky were controlled by Israel, so it's really under a big occupation and prison. Etshaq Rabin said that he wanted to wake up one day and to see it swallowed by the sea. It's not the issue, the issue is the West Bank, the Golan, Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees.

   I would conclude by saying that the logic of Syria is that: peace has to be fair to all parties. It has to be just because if it's not fair one party will work hard to try to undermine it whether now or in the future. And if we to make peace we must make peace that future generations would like to defend not to work against it because it would be of no use. If I were an Israeli I would ask my government to make peace with the Arabs now and I will tell you why. It's because if the Arabs were at a very weak point in their history certainly they don't want better than that to make peace. But I think what is the process of events now in the Middle East now and with the support of the American administration it's force but not the international legitimacy nor rights nor the Security Resolutions nor human rights, nothing of that kind.

    I would say that the United States behave very differently in many examples, this was also mentioned by the Spanish Foreign Minister Mr. Moratinus, after the World WarII  the United States had an enemy called coluonism, what did it do??  It started the Marshal plan with German and a Marshal plan for Japan. Neither the United States had Katrina and the horrible situation in New Orliens, and after all these horrible days in the American media they announced they have to have a Marshal plan for New Orliens not only because it was struck by Katrina but also because there is poverty, there is a huge social and political problems in New Orliens. Well, if they believe there is a huge political problem in the Middle East and they are underdevelopment, and they certainly is, and there is social and economic problem in the Middle East, what it needs is development, peace, investment. It's not going to work by embargo and to looking in the Koran to see what's wrong with the Koran, and what's wrong with the text and what's wrong with the interpretation, you know, that's not the way to go because when the IRA was striking in London, and I was in London that time, killing innocent civilians in buses and tubes nobody went to the Bible to see what's wrong with Catholicism, they recognized that there was a political problem which needs a political solution and they reached the solution. There is a political problem in the Middle East, there is a problem of land and water. When we were negotiating with the Israelis in Sheverdstown and we achieved eighty percent of the agreement, the remaining issue that nobody solved until now is water in the Golan. And that is the name of the game in the Middle East, water. So, there is a problem, there is occupation, there are people whom rights are totally taken, the Palestinians are living refugees on their own land, even in Palestine there is one million refugees because their houses were destroyed, there is nowhere to go. Now there are Iraqis who are refugees on their own land. When the American troops attacked Fallouja and Talafar now they left more than five hundreds Iraqis as refugees on their own land. This is the result of wars, this is the result of a huge, really, problem of policies in the Middle East.

As an Arab woman who belongs certainly to the Arab nation and who is very appreciative of what the west offers of science and technology and help and thoughts I feel the international community should focus on bringing a political solution to the Middle East. I witnessed the change in the American attitude when we were negotiating in the nineties  the American administration was called the honest broker, the honest mediator, and we had, you know, thousands of hours, and I'm not exaggerating when I say thousands of hours, negotiating every single word but only parity of dignity but not on the basis who is strong and who is weak and who has the weapons and who doesn't, not on that bases. But now there is no dialogue even going on. They only decide what to do and they embargo countries, sanction countries and this is extremely harmful and it would not lead to any good results.

    When Oslo agreement was signed by the Israelis and the Palestinians and President Arafat came to Syria to see the Late President Hafez Al-Assad President Assad went on T.V. and said this agreement is not going to last because every single paragraph needs ten agreements to clarify. It says nothing. And it's not last. And this agreement was so much celebrated. Also there was the Road Map, there was Taba why are all these agreements??  The only agreement that would last for everyone in the region is a Just and Comprehensive Peace. When justice is implemented, when people have their rights, when people will be treated on the parity of dignity not to disarm everyone in the region, you know, all the Arabs and keeping Israel has all the nuclear weapons, we are the one whose territories were occupied. The Golan is a Syrian territory, and even the United States acknowledged that, the Golan is a Syrian territory that is occupied by Israel. So we need solutions. As I said we recognized that the Arabs are weak, they are divided, they are not speaking in one voice but there should be an international legitimacy.

    As an Arab woman I know that we have to work a lot more, and  a lot differently and we need to bring ourselves together and to be a strong voice in the international arena and to make the world listen to what we are saying because we don't want destruction, we don't want anyone to be killed, we want peace and that's the only thing we want, and that's the only thing that will make the region prosper because if there is no peace there could be nothing; there could be no investment, there could be no prosperity, there could be no employment and our young men will continue migrate the country because they want better jobs, they want better lives. We want to make their lives better in the Middle East. Our countries are beautiful countries, full of civilizations and full of potentials. Syria is not a poor country at all. Arab countries are not poor but we need stability. Iraq was the pride of the Arab nation. Iraq was the creative of civilizations. Look at Iraq now, if you want to know what Iraq now is look at it, it's doom. It's a doom as a country really. Its archeology is looted, its scientists had been killed, its doctors had been killed, university professors had been killed, women cannot go anywhere, children cannot go to school, hairdressers cannot be opened because the fundamentalists will kill them, terrorism is everywhere.

      Who is responsible for that??  War is the reason. Wars bring destruction, it's very easy to destroy but it's very difficult to build.  Syria's argument is to build not to destroy. To have dialogue but the United States doesn't want dialogue. It doesn't want to talk. How can you solve problems if you don't want to talk??  You can't solve problems without talking, without negotiating, without seeing what is the problem.

     I know you hear a lot about Hamas, about Hezballa.. what did Hezballa do??  It didn't kill a single Israeli citizen in all its history. It fought to liberate Lebanese territories. And that's the right of all people to do. If you now want to have democracy in the Middle East and to do referendum I tell you that Hezballa will come number one in the entire Arab world. And I have the courage to say this because this is the truth. Who negotiate with Israel for the bodies who are dead??  Is there any Arab country to go and to negotiate with Israel the way Hezballa did?? And when the bodies and the prisoners came to Lebanon Sheikh Hsan Nasrallah stood in front of the Arab T.Vs and said I respect my enemies, I respect the Israelis because they respected their dead and they negotiated to get the bodies of their dead. I don't think that there is any Arab person who has the courage to stand in front of T.v. and say that. So, we have to have the real evaluation of the people. If someone says Hamas is not ready to negotiate with Israel that is not true. When Sheikh Ahmad Yassin  killed a day before he said on T.v. that he want a peace with the Israelis. Next day he was killed by an Israeli missile, next day. I'm a good follower of the events in the Middle East because this is my life and the lives of my children. And I think about everything that said and done and as someone who works for peace and  longing for peace I believe having my child ten years for the peace process. Because I always said this year we will reach peace, next year we will reach peace and then I will have my personal life.

     So, what I always try to do everywhere I go is to asking everyone to try to bringing the international community together to work for peace. War doesn't lead anywhere. It will only bring more destruction, it will only bring more terrorism.

    In the nineties the whole atmosphere in the region was different. There was hope. People wanted to see prosperity. That itself will undermine terrorism. That itself will undermine fundamentalism. But when someone feels desperate where did they go??  They turn to God, and these terrible fundamentalists promised them that this is the place that they will get, paradise.

    When I came to Damascus university to teach in 1985 there would be five hundreds students in the auditorium, two hundreds of them are women, there would be two women who put the hijab. Now when I go to Damascus university and I'm a professor at that university there would be five hundreds students in the auditorium, there would be two hundred women and there would be two without a hijab. That's what wars do. That's what violence does. It makes people shrink and, you know, get attached to small and probably terrible ideas. But when you have openness, when you have hope, when you have people working together, when you have open borders, when you have investment then people don't migrate, people stay home and work and hope for a better future for their children.

     There is no Syrian person I met didn't tell me I would love to be in Syria. To be in Syria he wants to go to university, to hospital and to get a good salary. All these will be solved by development and by investment, not by sanctioning Syria, not by embargo, and not by threatening Syria. Syria always call for peace, work for peace. We can't give up our territories to live in peace. That's not the way any country in the region did it. This is the reason the United States is going after Syria. It's because Syria says that the Arab have the right to get back their occupied territories. But we want peace with Israel and we want to sign peace with Israel but on the bases of Security Council resolutions, on the bases of the international legitimacy that's acknowledged by the entire world. They don't want to give us that because the Arab are weak. The Arab doesn't want to give up their rights just because they are weak. All people in the world fought for years in order to free their territories and the Arabs were no exception. We are ready to do this through dialogue, it would be good for everyone. It would be good for the future of the Israelis to reduce the anger they are creating in the Arab world. Over eight hundreds children under the age of sixteen had been killed in the last four years, Palestinian children of course. Over twenty thousands Palestinian houses had been destroyed. Where did people go?? There is no water, there is no jobs. Ninety percent are unemployment in Gaza. Did you imagine what these men are going to do??  Hamas has social program and that's why people go to it. It has hospitals, it has schools. It's running the territories with social services.

     I don't wake up every morning to think whom I am going to elect. I wake up every morning wanting hot water, a hot cup of tea, breakfast, good clothing, good school for my child, that's what I want. And anyone who offers me that I'll elect him. I don't elect people on ideological bases. I elect people who give me services. The Arab people are no exception, they are like the whole people in the world and this is the way they think. And that's the way they should be responded to to■

Thank you so much for your kind attention