Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federal Assembly Gennady Seleznyov met with Abd al-Halim Haddam, Vice President of the Syrian Arab Republic. Taking part in the conversation were Dmitry Rogozin, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee, Valentin Kuptsov, deputy head of the CPRF (Communist Party) faction, Robert Markaryan, Russia's Ambassador to Syria, and Wahib Fadel, Syria's Ambassador to Russia.

The sides expressed hope that relations between Russia and Syria will develop both in the political and in the economic fields. This, they think, will be facilitated by meetings of delegations of the executive and legislative bodies of power of the two countries. "The time has come to revive the traditional good relations between our countries in the interest of establishing stability and peace in the Middle East," said Haddam. He voiced concern over the actions of Israel against Palestine, which, according to him, are dangerous for the entire region.

The Vice President analyzed also the situation around Iraq and the policy of the United States in the region, and stressed: "It is obvious that the reason for the threats by the US to start military action against Iraq is not the aim to destroy the weapons of mass destruction that the country is alleged to have or protect Iraq's neighbors from the danger threatening them, but to establish control over the cheap oil of Iraq located close to the Mediterranean Sea, and then that of Iran, in order, in the final analysis, to control all of this oil-producing region. We sense no threat from Iraq. The real threat to the countries of the region comes from Israel, possessing all the kinds of weapons of mass destruction and, despite this, being protected by the US." Noting that control by one country over the oil of this region means control over the economies of all the countries of the world, Haddam said that the United States would thus become the "world's filling station." This is the continuation of the US policy of hegemonism, of a striving to forcibly change the world and destroy the national distinctiveness of the peoples.

The Chairman of the State Duma noted the identity of the two sides' views on the situation in the Middle East region. He said that "the Chamber has taken a tough stand against the military blackmail of the United States and understands its aims."

Gennady Seleznyov informed the Syrian Vice President of the opening of the spring session and the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held in December.

In the course of the meeting the Chairman of the State Duma emphasized that "after the arrival of the official delegations of Syria to Moscow, a new stage will commence in relations between Russia and the Syrian Arab Republic."


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© Publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

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