Walid Muallem Speaking in a news conference says: any ground incursion without Syrian approval is an act of aggression and aggressors will go home with coffins.
Syria will see any incursion on its territory as an act of aggression, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Saturday, days after Saudi Arabia announced it was ready to send in ground troops."Any ground intervention on Syrian land without the agreement of the Syrian government is an act of aggression ... we regret that those (who invade) will return to their countries in coffins," al-Moualem told journalists.
Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem said Saturday that the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic to the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva showed belief in Syrians right and Syria’s future.
Al-Moallem added, in a press conference, that the Security Council resolution no. 2254 and the two Vienna Communiques state that the Syrian people alone have the right to determine their future and that dialogue should be a Syrian- led among the Syrians without foreign interference and without preconditions, while the statements of “Riyadh opposition” delegation, made even before the go to Geneva, were full of preconditions.
‘We asked the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to provide us with a list of the names of those with whom we were going to have dialogue, because we wouldn’t hold dialogue with ghosts,” The Minister said.
Al-Moallem added that “Riyadh opposition” delegation decided to walk away from the dialogue after victories made by the Syrian Arab Army…we hoped they (Riyadh opposition) would be happy just like our people were happy with breaking the three-and-a-half year siege of Nubbul and al-Zahraa (towns, northern Aleppo), but they didn’t feel happy simply because their affiliation is not to the Syrian people, asserting that it was the decision of the operators of “Riyadh opposition” delegation in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar to undermine the dialogue in Geneva …anyway, they did right walking out because they are not free to make decisions.
AL-Moallem warned that “Everyone should realize, on top of all de Mistura, that Syria is going for a Syrian- Syrian dialogue without any preconditions and will not comply with any precondition set by any party whatsoever.”
“The two Vienna Communiqués and the Security Council Resolution (2254) stress on the broadest representation of the opposition delegation” Th Minister said, adding …We told them ‘do not repeat the mistakes of Geneva 2’.
The delegation of the opposition from inside Syria should be represented because they are national opposition who have stayed in Syria all through the past period…No one in the opposition can claim to be the only representative of the whole opposition, al-Moallem said.
In response to a question on Saudi regime’s announcement that it was ready to send troops to Syria, al-Moallem said the Saudi statements did not come out of the blue, but came in natural response to demands, based on research centers in the US and the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s statements to form ground troops to fight ISIS because the US doesn’t want to cooperate with the Syrian army that is fighting ISIS, adding that .. “the question to be asked is ‘What has Saudi Arabia done in Yemen? Has it succeeded?’ It has inflicted total destruction,”.
“Any ground intervention in the Syrian territories without the government’s approval would be an act of aggression that has to be confronted, and in that case confrontation will be every Syrian’s duty,” al-Moallem clarified, adding that “Any aggressor will be sent back to their country in wooden boxes,”.
Saudi Arabia, al-Moallem said, is implementing the US will, and “it seems that after Syrian army’s victories, the conspirators and funders have got fed up with their tools on the ground, and that they decided to get involved themselves.”
Al-Moallem, however, ruled out such a move, but still recalled “their crazy decisions made not only against Yemen but also regarding other areas.”
Minister al-Moallem reiterated Syria’s belief that the political solution is the only way to solve the crisis in Syria, noting that “We don’t link between what is taking place on the ground and the political work, and we are working in parallel in the fight against terrorism.”
Asked about the Jordanian stance, al-Moallem said there has been no change in that stance as terrorists are still flowing across Jordan into Syria, but not vice versa because those who cross the other direction get killed.
Al-Moallem made it clear that Syria trusts the Russian stance “because of the standing coordination between us”, referring to the Russian Foreign Minister’s “clear” statement in which he said that the talk of a ceasefire is not possible before Syria’s borders with Turkey and Jordan are controlled.