H.E. Dr. Riad Kamel Abbas, Ambassador of Syria in India

ANA:India and Syria have a history of relations that go back to ancient civilizational ties. Excellency, how would you assess the status of the current relations between the two countries?

H.E.: Syria and India have enjoyed warm bilateral relations since the independence of the two countries and there is a common understanding of the many international issues, official visits of high-level Syrian delegations to India recently that has been covered by many of the Indian media was very useful in strengthening those relations.

ANA:Could you describe for our readers the manner in which your government views the conflict in Syria and the region?

H.E.: This war was imposed on Syria in order to destroy its civilization and plunder its resources, a big army of one hundred thousands of mercenaries from all the nationalities came from more than 80 country to kill our people and displace them, those mercenaries are funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia in terms of money and arms and are trained in Turkey and facilitating them to infiltrate in Syria under the approval of USA in order to force Syria to accept its project in the region and to make Syria a follower for USA.

United States is using this army of mercenaries to do its dirty works in the region

ANA: President Assad retains control over the country in-spite of the upheavals in the region. Excellency, what would you attribute that to?

H.E.: When what they called “Arab Spring” started, we said that what is happening in Syria is a terrorist operations and not for the sake of democracy and reforms, this was clear to all, we also said that Syria is not like the rest of some Arab countries, President al-Assad came to power with the support of the Syrian people, not with the support of US, and he is still in power with the support of his people, who are facing terrorism under his leadership, and will remain as long as he is supported by Syrian people while the others who were appointed from outside has left the power.

ANA: Excellency, how far is stability in the region in your country’s assessment?

H.E.: As long as external intervention is there, and the greed of west in our national recourses is existed, As long as support for terrorism and terrorists is there and no control on border in order to prevent the flow of terrorists, stability and peace cannot be there in Syria. And it cannot be until each terror group and rebels supported by terrorist or alliance forces are rooted out.

ANA: Would you like to comment on the role of India in the region and specifically in your country? Do you see a different approach by Prime Minister Modi’s government when compared to the stance that the UPA government took?

H.E.: We highly appreciate India’s stand about Syrian issue, who asked for no external intervention in Syria and have supported the inspirations of our people, by political solution and negotiations between the Syrians themselves and this is the stand of the peace loving Indian people who have elected current and the previous government.

ANA: Excellency, would your government like India to take a more pro-active role in the region?

H.E.: India is a great country and its voice is heard in the international arena, and has an active role in the group of BRICS states also, We welcome any role for peace in Syria and the region that can be played by the country of great Gandhi, the peace has spread to all nations of the world out of this country and we hope that India will play this role in our region.

ANA:Historically, India has had substantial interests in Syria in trade and investment, energy and security. What is your assessment on the current nature of these interests and how do you see them evolving over the next few years?

H.E.: There are large economic interests between Syria and India, especially in the fields of energy, electricity, oil and other trade relations, these relationships have been affected a little bit during the crisis, but it returned going on now.

Now the reconstruction projects has begun in Syria and many international companies are heading it however the policy of the government is to go towards east to our friendly countries, including India, which have priority to investment in all available fields in Syria.

ANA: Excellency, would you like to give a message to the diplomatic community and the Government of India through News behind the News (NbN)?

H.E.: If all countries have the same India’s policy no problem was occurred in Syria or in any other country in the world.

The basic problem is the external interference in order to put its hands on our national recourses under the pretext of spreading democracy or the lie of fighting against terrorism.

It became known where terrorism is coming from and it is easy to know its source, instead of the fight against terrorism those sources must be dry, these and terrorism schools must be closed, in other words the culture of terrorism must be prevented from spreading. It’s known that Wahhabism is behind all terrorist operations in the world.

It is known where the source of Wahhabism is and who does not know it is his problem.