Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Damascus, SANA –Caretaker Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad said Syria is fighting a battle against the armed terrorist groups to defend its existence and maintain its sovereignty, independence and capabilities.
Mikdad’s remarks came during a seminar organized by the General Union of Syrian Women marking the 47th anniversary of its foundation.
He stressed that the role of Syrian women in achieving victory is counted on, highlighting that part of what the terrorist groups rely on in their criminal acts is influencing and manipulating women into helping them carry out those acts.
Mikdad saluted “every mother who lost a son, and every sister who lost a brother” in the course of Syria’s battle to maintain its sovereignty and independence.
Mikdad said that founding the General Union of Syrian Women marked a turning point in Syria’s history and heralded a long road of actual change, underlining the achievements of Syrian women amidst a state of narrow-mindedness and regressive tendencies in the Arab world.
He called for putting an end to all the restraints put on women by old laws, particularly those issued during the days of the Ottoman and French occupation, so that women can take their rightful place, noting that Syria joined the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Mikdad said that in his speech upon being sworn in, President Bashar al-Assad asserted that defeating terrorism is inevitable, and that it devised a strategy for rebuilding the homeland and eliminating corruption, in addition to showcasing the challenges of the upcoming stage.
The Deputy Minister said that the so-called “Arab spring” became an Arab disaster and a real disgrace in Arab modern history, noting that its terminology –which originated in the west – show that its goal is to seize the Arabs’ minds and thoughts.
He asserted that Israel is a weapon of mass destruction in and of itself, and that the “Arab spring” aimed at killing Arabs with this weapon, something which the recent Israeli on aggression proves.
Mikdad wondered why those self-proclaimed “jihadists” didn’t step up to defend Gaza and its people, and why they consider Israel one of their “principalities” which they coexist with in order to receive support from the west and the Arab Gulf.
He noted that since the beginning of the crisis, Palestinian refugee camps were targeted by terrorist organizations that vandalized them and displaced their Palestinian occupants.
Mikdad said that the terrorism affecting Syria is a matter that concerns all humanity, and that those who conspire against Syria will fall victims to their own machinations quite soon, noting that Syria has no objections to anything in the Security Council resolution no. 2170 that imposes sanctions on those who fund and support the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) because this is something Syria had been calling for all along.
He called upon all Syrians to unite in the face of terrorism and corruption, stressing the important of national reconciliation initiatives which are being carried out across the country.
Rasha Raslan / Haifa Said / Hazem Sabbagh
