H.E. Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban in New York with Women for Foreign Policy Group in a lecture titled
"Syria's Role in the Middle East from Lebanon to Iraq"
12 Sept. 2005
First I would like to thank Ms Elisss, the executive director of the Women Foreign Policy Group and her assistant Ms. Emily Harter for arranging this wonderful occasion for me.
I would also like to thank our ambassador to the US. Dr. Imad Mustafa and our ambassador to the UN. Dr. Faysal Mukdad for their warm help and support, and first and foremost I would like to thank all of you ladies and gentlemen for taking your time today and making the effort to come here on a weekday in a very busy week in New York.
Because I truly believe that despite all the advancement in technology and IT, personal encounter among people remains the best way to promote understanding and overcome crisis in relations. A fellow- Syrian woman of mine discovered this truth over a century ago and wore her Syrian National dress in 1893 and dared distance and time and came to the US. touring churches, communities and universities telling them the truth about Syria and what does it stand for. Her fellow Lebanese writer and novelist who was living in New York at the time and was editing al-Huda Newspaper here look a year of to write a novel in Arabic to dispel some of the misunderstandings Arab people have about American Women. That effort exerted by Arab women to initiate dialogue and understanding continued unabated for the first half of the twenties century as the correspondence and exchange between Arab women and American women seems better then than we find today. Arab women's journals and literary magazines published at the time are living evidence to that genuine spirit of dialogue and understanding.
Something went terribly wrong in mid-twentieth century where dehumanizing the other instead of conversing with the other started to be the more prominent. Now, we especially after 9/11 you need heroes who are prepared to martyrs in order to be able to speak the truth loud and clear. And the truth did have its martyrs in all ages, but especially at our times because the false concepts about issues sometimes take precedence over the truth and once a wave of defining peoples, events or even countries start it become so difficult to reverse the trend. As we are in New York at the time of the General Assembly I would like to pay tribute to a martyr of truth and constructive understanding, the late assistant to the Secretary General, the Brazilian young and dignified man Serejeo de Millo who fought for a UN role in Iraq and whose last words from under the rubble were not to his children and family but to his colleague Ghassan Salameh, saying to him "Ghassan don't let the UN leave Iraq". And I would also like to pay tribute to a brilliant woman and mother and foreign minister whose voice assured all of us that only Justice could rule at the end, but she was also assassinated, her name as you know was An Lynde the foreign minister of Sweden who used her post only to raise her voice in saying the truth and in establishing the rule of Justice.
Truth and Justice are most needed qualities which we all have to defend and realize because they carry the solution to most of the crisis the world is witnessing today especially in the Middle East. All what you need to know is the truth about the Middle East and all what you need to do is the support justice, freedom and human dignity in the Middle East.
Before we understand the role of Syria from Iraq to Lebanon we need to understand what is happening in Iraq- Lebanon and Palestine because they are all interrelated and it is not good enough for our people who are suffering every single day to acknowledge later that what was said in the Security Council was misguided because it put an argument to launch a war and an entire country, its heritage, wealth, history and people are suffering an unbearable loss. Syria, France and the horerable Hans Blix tried to highlight the true situation and the risks in Iraq but everyone was whispering at the SC. that the decision for war is already taken and the US. doesn't want to listen to anything to the contrary. Syria and President Bashar al Assad reiterated that Iraq couldn't have WMD after ten years of strict sanctions and you remember all the theories of moving them to Syria and that launching a war on Iraq will broaden the place for chaos and will give terrorists a more fertile ground to grow and that the Iraqi people who have never accepted occupation will try to make the Americans sink in its sand. No one wanted to listen then and unfortunately no one wants to listen now.
What did Syria stand for from Iraq to Lebanon and Palestine
Syria was the only Arab country to take a firm stand against Iraq- Iran war and was persecuted both by Arab neighbors and by the US. because as you remember the US. was supporting Saddam in that war and we weren't although Iraq is an Arab country the late President Hafez al Assad was warning both Arabs and Americans about the dangers of Saddam.
When Saddam occupied Kuwait Syria to the outcry of Syrian and Arab people, sent troops with the U.S. to liberate Kuwait because we stand against occupation anywhere.
For 20 years our borders with Iraq were closed because of Saddam who sent us terrorists and explosives and killed innocent civilians in bus stations and on the roads.
All the Iraqi leadership today had Syrian passports and houses in Damascus. How did it happen that once Saddam was removed some parties started to link Syria to Saddam??
After 9/ 11 Syria cooperated with the US. against terrorism and US. officials acknowledged that Syria helped save American lives. Terrorists struck us for years and they are doing that again because of our secular culture multi-ethnic and multi religious society that is an example to the world.
Syria was the only country in the world to pay the lives of its sons to stop a civil war in Lebanon.
Why then all this media against Syria
1st. Syria worked for ten years for a just and comprehensive peace. What is happening today in Gaza is turning a small prison into a big one while overtaking Jerusalem, the West Bank and Sky, roads and water paths in Gaza. Is this what SC. resolutions said about Palestine or about the Golan Syria wants the implementation of UNSC resolutions on the Arab – Israeli conflict because solving that conflict is the only way to remove the cancer of violence, injustice and resentment from the region. Syria today is the only Arab country who accepts nothing less than what is right and just.
In 2002 Beirut and in 2005 Algiers Arab leaders put an initiative on the table that all Arab countries are prepared to make peace with Israel if Israel would withdraw to the line of June 4, 1967. Here in New York Sharon said he will not withdraw and he will not give rights to the Palestinian refugees and he will not negotiate Jerusalem. What is happening on that front is tranquilizer but that will prolong the suffering until real solutions are found, solutions are based on the true situations and which implement SC. resolutions and achieve justice for all people. This is what Syria stands for at a difficult time when occupation of Arab countries and territories pass unnoticed and the killing of our children is not considered a crime and the destruction of a whole way of life and our civilization is hardly lamented. Disarming the Arabs and preventing them even from studying abroad seems acceptable while the ones who occupy their territories is floaded with money, arms and assistance to evacuate houses they occupied while the Palestinians whose houses are destroyed almost on their heads and lands are confiscated are never compensated. Over 15000 Palestinian houses have been destroyed. Over 5000 Palestinians had been killed. Over 8000 Palestinians, 5000 of them are mothers suffer death everyday in Israeli jails because they say no to occupation, yes to freedom and liberty. I know that if the American people knew the truth about what is happening in the Middle East you will all support what is right, but an essential part of the war on the Arabs is not to allow people know the truth of what is happening. I don't want your grandchildren to know what terrible injustice have befallen the Arabs 50 years from now, I am coming here to tell you so you stand with what is just and human.
Thank you so much for your kind listening