INTERNATIONAL / ARAB NEWS VIDEO - 'Arabs must unite in face of Western expansion'

It is months since an uprising began in Syria against the Assad regime with hundreds of civilians allegedly killed. Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad told RT it is the extremists and not peaceful protesters that are behind the unrest. ­RT: I would like to talk about what has been going on in Syria for the last three months. Can you comment on it? Faisal al-Miqdad: Syria has seen complicated events in these three months when religious extremists started to destabilize the country's peace and security and undermine stability in Syria. Of course, the mass media have also done their bit to present Syria in an unfavorable light as a country that is hostile towards its own people. Never in the history of modern Syria has the country been attacked the way these armed bands of extremists are doing it. Syria is in need of reforms and we have had peaceful demonstrations in favor of reforms. The Syrian government and President Bashar al-Assad responded to the demands of the people but, as you may recall, every time the government was about to introduce reforms, violence surged in the country.
I witnessed these acts of violence in Daraa and other Syrian provinces like many other citizens did. The incumbent president of Syria is committed to reforms and in 2000 he proposed a major program of reforms but events in the region that followed affected the implementation of the reforms gravely: the US invasion of Iraq and a potential threat that the aggression would sweep over Syria after the American government made its intentions clear; the turmoil in Lebanon and the assassination of the Lebanese leader Rafic Hariri. The situation in the region changed and the state of Syria is threatened. The reforms were shifted to the back burner and defense of the country was made the priority task. It has been the most important thing ever since. Today, however, the government is considering the implementation of the reform plan their predecessors have launched but not finished. President Bashar al-Assad has lifted the state of emergency and signed a decree that allows holding peaceful demonstrations in the country. By doing this the president actually enforced one of the basic civil rights.
Besides, the draft law on parties was submitted for discussion. The text can be found on the internet. Previously we had a law that limited the allowed number of parties in Syria to ten. The new law stipulates that people may create new parties if they wish to. Their number is no more limited, and whether the newly-established party will be in opposition or not does not matter either. A lot of attention is also paid to the new law on mass media which is as essential a part of the national dialogue as the law on parties, on elections or on local authorities.
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