Visit to Syria – Statements by M. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic, during his quadripartite press conference with Mr Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Amir of Qatar and Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey (excerpts)
Damascus, 4 September 2008
ISRAEL/SYRIA/US/IRAN
Q. – (…) Yesterday you stressed the American role as sponsor of the Israeli-Syrian negotiations, today there’s a sort of rift between Damascus and Washington, will this quadripartite summit provide the opportunity for rethinking the American role in the peace process? (…)
THE PRESIDENT – France’s foreign policy consists in doing the utmost to promote peace. (…) I believe – and we all four talked about this – that the most prudent policy is to be ambitious on all the flashpoints for war in the Middle East, because they are all interconnected. So, we must move forward. We can’t each move forward on our own.
As regards the United States, as you perhaps know, France is an ally of the United States. France is the United States’ friend. France enjoys the confidence of the United States (…). It happens that on the Syrian issue we don’t see totally eye to eye. France thinks Syria must be encouraged on the path of peace: peace with Israel and peace with Lebanon; and, also, that we need Syria to convince Iran. I think that the United States is perfectly aware of the role Syria is playing. The disagreement is not on the result; Syria has to play a role but on the moment when the talks are going to start. France has fulfilled the role of opening up relations with Syria, and she isn’t disappointed with this dialogue being opened up. The Americans know perfectly well that we are here and under what conditions. There’s no problem from this point of view and I’m not at all bothered in this respect. (…)
On Iran I don’t think President Bashar al-Assad and France see totally eye to eye. I think that Syria can exert influence. As Iran is wasting a lot of time, too much time, and we want peace, we must use every channel to persuade Iran not to be fooled into following what would be the very bad strategy of thinking that time is on her side. Time isn’t on the side of peace; it’s political will which allows people to work for peace. (…)./.