Damascus, October 24: Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his support on Thursday for Syria’s efforts to recover the Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
“I hope that President (Bashar al-) Assad will invite me to the Golan after its liberation. One day we will visit the Golan together,” Chavez said at a news conference with the Syrian leader.
Chavez, who arrived in Damascus from Iran late on Wednesday, said his country “maintains an alliance with Syria based on sentiments of friendship between the two peoples.”
“We need to accelerate the birth of a new multi-party and balanced world,” the Venezuelan president said. “Thanks to the efforts of millions of people and of leaders like President Assad, we will achieve this world in the next few years.”
For his part, Assad denounced the “new world order based on force and hegemony instead of justice and principles.”
Assad also criticised Israel over peace moves in the region.
“Israel does not wish for and is not ready to make peace,” he said. It is following a “tactical course aimed at persuading the world that it is passionate about peace and that it is the Arabs who reject it.”
“Israel murders the Palestinians, and the process of judaising Jerusalem is a racist act,” he added.
Chavez’s visit to Syria is his latest stop on an international tour aimed at strengthening Venezuela’s commercial ties with eastern Europe and the Middle East.
——Agencies