Damascus, February 21: Syria can make economic progress by helping Middle East peace efforts, including finding an agreement on Iran’s nuclear drive, visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Saturday.
“One of the conditions of continued economic development in Syria is peace and security in the region,” Fillon told an economic forum in Syria’s capital Damascus.
“If France decides to resume and strengthen dialogue with Syria, it will be because we believe Syria has a key role in establishing peace in the Middle East,” the French prime minister said.
“What must prevail is truth and transparency. To improve the situation, everyone must make an effort.”
Fillon, the first French premier to visit Syria in more than 30 years, singled out the standoff between world powers and Syria’s ally Iran over Tehran nuclear drive as an issue in which Damascus can play a positive role.
“We hope that Syria will help us in this effort for Iran,” Fillon said.
He also said he had asked for Syria’s help to obtain from Iran the release of French academic Clotilde Reiss who was arrested after the disputed June re-election of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
“Clotilde Reiss is unjustly detained in Iran… and should therefore be freed as soon as possible without any preconditions,” Fillon told a joint news conference with Syrian counterpart Naji Otri.
“That’s the message that we are sending to the Iranian government and I would like once again to thank President Assad for having helped us in relaying this message,” he added.
Fillon met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the 24-hour visit to Damascus and late Saturday he travelled to neighbouring Jordan where on Sunday he will hold talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II and top officials.
In Damascus Fillon said France also was “very attentive” to Palestinian reconciliation between the democratically elected Hamas and Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas.
He added that France also was “available” to facilitate dialogue between Syria and Israel with Turkish mediation.
“We will do all that is necessary for the resumption of the dialogue,” he said.
The last round of Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel collapsed in December 2008, following Israel’s devastating war on besieged Gaza.
Tel Aviv and Damascus have been locked in a recent war of words.
Fillon also called for “a process of disarmament” for all militias in Lebanon, alluding to Hezbollah, a resistance movement that is now part of a unity government.
Fillon arrived Friday in Damascus, accompanied by Economic Minister Christine Lagarde, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand and a delegation of French businessmen.
Paris hopes to build economic ties with Syria at a time when the country is opening up more and more to foreign investments as part of its reforms.
Ties between France and Syria have warmed since Assad paid a landmark visit to Paris in 2008 for Bastille Day. French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to Damascus two months later, and Assad revisited Paris last November.
Syria is determined to help its ally Iran and the West engage in a “constructive” dialogue over Tehran’s contested nuclear programme, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Saturday.
“Sanctions are not a solution (to the problem) between Iran and the West,” Muallem said.
“We are trying to engage a constructive dialogue between the two parties in order to reach a peaceful solution,” Muallem said.
He also insisted that despite Western claims, “Iran does not have a nuclear military programme.”
Elsewhere Muallem said that a warming up of Syrian-US diplomatic ties is “extremely important to set up a launchpad which could one day help the resumption of direct negotiations between Syria and Israel.”
Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama named a new ambassador to Syria, filling a five-year void.
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Saturday condemned the assassination in Dubai of Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh, saying murder should never be part of diplomacy.
“Murder is not the way one should conduct international relations,” Fillon said, when asked about the hit widely blamed on Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
“I don’t know all the ins and outs of the affair in Dubai. I hope that light will be shed on who did this and who did that in this murder,” Fillon said.
“France condemns this murder,” he told a press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Mohammed Naji Otri, whose government hosts exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and hosted Mabhuh before his murder.
“All murders, whoever is behind them and whoever orders them, are to be condemned.
“Like the British and like the Germans, we have asked for explanations from the Israeli authorities since a French passport has been used in this operation,” he added, referring to the suspected use of forged passports bearing the names of joint Israeli-European citizens.
“We want to know the truth.”
—Agencies