Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Syrian pol: "I am optimistic that within ten years, Israel will come to its end"


As Israel contemplates giving up the Golan Heights to Syria, Syria contemplates the total destruction of Israel.

"Syrian Minister Riyad Na'san Al-Agha Justifies the Persecution of Syrian Intellectuals and Declares: I Am Optimistic that Israel Will Come to an End within 10 Years," from MEMRI (thanks to Joel): Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian Minister of Culture Riyad Na'san al-Agha, which aired on Al-Hiwar on April 19, 2008.

[...]

Interviewer: In five years, the government might call Israel and say: Let's put an end to this.

Riyad Na'san al-Agha: I will be the first they have to take to jail.

Interviewer: Will we be saying that the president maintained "dubious relations" with Israel?

Riyad Na'san al-Agha: Those who will want to do this, God forbid, will have to get rid of me and many others like me beforehand.

[...]

Imagine the Arab nation without those resistance fighters. By Allah, it is not worth being stepped on.

[...]

Blair is gone, Bush will be gone, and so on...

Interviewer: But in the meantime, people are dying, entire generations...

Riyad Na'san al-Agha: That's our fate. We are talking about an eternal conflict. I am not optimistic that it will be resolved any time soon, but by Allah, they suffer more than us. Here in Syria, the people are united. Sheik Hassan [Nasrallah] himself said that in 2006, the decision of whether Syria should join the war was left to him. It's not me who says this. He said so. We were ready to join the war. This does not mean tgat we will necessarily win. We might be defeated, but at least we will prove that we exist. I am optimistic that within ten years, Israel will come to its end.

Interviewer: But the pressure on Syria is continuously increasing, and the price you might pay is the economic exhaustion of your people.

Riyad Na'san al-Agha: So what if they get exhausted?...

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