Prospects for war have grown: Assad

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133569§ionid=351020206



Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the current tension between Israel and Turkey has increased the possibility of war in the region.

Assad cautioned on Monday that if "relations between Israel and Turkey are not renewed, it will be very difficult for Turkey to continue its role in the [peace] negotiations," the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported. "The chances of peace grow slim, and the prospect of war grows," he noted.

In 2008, Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks between Damascus and Tel Aviv. The talks stalled following the December 2008-January 2009 war on Gaza, which left over 1,400 Palestinians dead and inflicted more than $1.6 billion in damage on Gaza's economy.

Assad added that "Turkey knows the ins and outs of the Middle East," and "there was never such a significant factor as Turkey for peace talks, and the stability of the region."

Ankara's relations with Tel Aviv hit an all-time after the attack on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, which left nine Turkish citizens on board the M.V. Mavi Marmara dead.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday that Ankara would sever all ties with Israel if Tel Aviv did not offer a formal apology over the attack.

However, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman insisted that Tel Aviv would not apologize.

'Israel's land-grab threat to peace'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127193§ionid=351020202


The Organization of Islamic Conference says Israel's occupation of Syria's Golan Heights poses a threat to global security, report says.

The continued Israeli threats against Syria, meant to escalate regional tensions, are endangering global peace and security, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted a draft resolution of the international body's Thursday summit as saying.

Participating foreign ministers at the OIC in Dushanbe wrote in the resolution, "The OIC Ministerial Council asserts that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and has no legitimate or judicial value, and constitutes a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and its related resolutions and rules of international law," SANA reported.

The OIC's ministerial convention also slammed Israel for failing to abide by a 1981 UN Security Council resolution in which Tel Aviv was required to refrain from its "continued alteration" of the judicial, demographic, and civil features of the occupied Syrian territories.

The OIC members reiterated Syria's right to restore full sovereignty of the occupied Golan Heights, calling on Israel to withdraw fully to the pre-June 4, 1967 borders.

The participants also called on all countries not to supply Israel with any military, economic, financial, technical or human assistance that might prolong the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, the report added.

They also called on the international community to help step up pressure against Israel and urge Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories of 1967.

In addition, the OIC's 37th session threw its weight behind the Palestinian Cause, naming it as the central cause for the Islamic Nation.