In Memoriam: Hafez al Assad 10th of June 2014-14 YEARS OF IMMORTALITY-HAFEZ AL ASSAD The eternal leader Hafez Al-Assad shortened history through the depth of his thoughts and wisdom. Creativeness in the Thought of the Eternal Leader Hafez AL Assad In every country there are creators that we have to look for and encourage them towards having more Innovation. Time is moving. A missed time is difficult to be recovered. If we do not grasp the core of the scientific research and examine its depth, we will not possess the advancement and #progress that we aspire to achieve, and may not maintain our achievements that we have realized by the perspiration and sacrifices performed by our people. The issue of scientific research has not to remain within the theoretical limits as it has to be a basic foundation in every university along with the education, and the government has to afford the prerequisites of achieving this mission. The human wealth we have is not only a quantity, but it is a heritage, history and civilization as well as what it produces of thinking, will and determination. Human being always has the ability if s/he wants to create and do right. Human being innovation and work is the most important fortune.Work Development at the State departments and organizations has become a pressing need and a national responsibility in order to not expand the gap between us and others and to be qualified partners in all what is taking place in respect of the political and economic developments in the Arab world and in the whole world Former French President Jacques Chirac said : President Hafez Al-Assad was a statesman keen on boosting his country and the fate of the #ArabNation , he has had a prominent role in history over the last three decades. After his meeting with President Hafez Al-Assad in Damascus, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said : I really feel , for the first time in my life, that I put my hand in the hand of #TruePresident . I had an Indescribable feeling, when I shook hands with him , I looked at his face and I saw the whole history and vigor , in those moments , I thanked God that he was not a president of a great country, then he would undoubtedly rule the world. The funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica (“heroic”) symphony played in the background as pallbearers bore the casket into the palace. There the flag-draped coffin stayed for several hours as diplomats and leaders from around the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, came to pay their last respects to Assad. Some spectators faint As the funeral procession made its way through the streets of Damascus, women shrieked and wept. Old men in white skullcaps fingered prayer beads. People packed rooftop and clambered up light poles to get a better view. Some spectators passed out in the stifling heat, although soldiers were handing out water. Mourners fill streets On Monday, Syrians flooded into Damascus to march through the streets to mourn the only leader many of them had ever known and to show their support for his son and heir apparent. With practically all other shops closed, vendors did a brisk business selling black mourning cloth for the flags and banners that were carried in the marches and draped over balconies. “We’re sad about the death of the president, but we come to pledge our support to Bashar,” one man told CNN, while another said that “all Syrians without exception want peace and want Bashar Assad.” In the Golan Heights thousands of Syrians gathered to mourn the late president after failing in their attempt to cross the border on Monday to attend the funeral. Tuesday, 13 June, 2000 Golan Syrians bid farewell The Syrians who live on Israeli-controlled land have been desperate to cross the border to attend President Assad’s funeral. But the border has never been open and on Monday even those with special permission were not allowed through. The Syrians living in the Golan Heights, which was captured by Israel from Syria in 1967, saw President Assad as the embodiment of the nation they still call home. (CNN) Elite members of Syria’s military carried the coffin of late President Hafez Assad through the streets of Damascus on Tuesday at the biggest funeral in Syria’s modern history. Thousands of mourners watched the passing of the coffin draped with the Syrian flag. Many broke into a traditional Muslim funeral chant: “There is no God but God.” Some collapsed in the streets, overcome either by the heat or by emotion. Syrian People Mourns Hafez al Assad was the most dominant figure in Middle East politics for three tumultuous decades Members of parliament wept openly at news of Assad’s death at the age of 69. A 40-day period of mourning was declared and a senior official said the funeral would be on Tuesday. The overwhelming majority of Syrians have known no other leader. Shops closed and residents of the capital hung black banners from apartment balconies. However, mourners on the streets have voiced support for Bashar, chanting “With our souls and blood we follow Bashar”. Thousands Mourn Earlier Saturday in Damascus, the city exploded in shouts, honks and tears as hundreds of bereaved Syrians poured out into the streets to mourn Assad’s death. June 11 — Thousands of buses packed with Syrian workers began rolling into Damascus Saturday as news of the death of Hafez Assad began trickling into Lebanon. At least one man fainted, overcome by emotion. Young men, many of them wearing black with black bands on their foreheads, circled the streets leading up to the presidential palace and Assad’s private residence. As police looked on, the crowd cried “Allahu Akbar!” or God is great, and shouted slogans expressing support for Bashar Assad. “With our souls, with our blood, we will protect you, oh Bashar,” the crowd chanted. The government declared a 40-day mourning period. Syria’s red-black-and-white flags were lowered to half-staff. Stores were quickly shuttered. Secondary school exams were postponed until next week. Loud speakers at government buildings, hotels and other establishments resounded with verses from the Koran, Islam’s holy book, in the traditional Islamic way of mourning. “I never thought I would see another leader. I thought he was immortal,” said Mohammed Kurdi, a 30-year-old taxi driver. Today, shopkeepers hung black-bordered portraits of Hafez al Assad on shuttered store fronts. Most women in the streets were dressed in black, and verses from the Islamic holy book, the Koran, were being played at low volume through loudspeakers in government offices and hotels. Syria’s red, black and white flags were flying at half-staff. Secondary school exams, scheduled for this weekend, were postponed until next week. “Our beloved president has left us. There are no words to describe my sorrow,” said Bassem Soudan, a university student who had taken off his shirt and taped a picture of Assad on his chest. A crowd of people gathered outside the presidential palace in Damascus, crying and chanting Bashar’s name in support. “With our souls, with our blood, we will protect you, O Bashar,” the crowd said. Syria’s red-black-and-white flags were lowered to half-staff. Stores closed and secondary school exams scheduled this weekend were postponed until next week. Loudspeakers at government buildings, hotels and other establishments resounded with verses from the Koran, Islam’s holy book. The Associated Press Standing in a bus station in Beirut along with another 75 Syrian workers, Selim Daba was one of many getting ready for the three-hour trip to Damascus. “All my friends will be going back,” said Daba, a 32-year-old handyman, who lives in Beirut and regularly sends money to his wife and two children in Syria. As he flipped through his wallet, he showed pictures of the 69-year-old leader. “This is my father. This is who I love,” he said Arabnews Information minister: Syria clings to national principles Syria’s Information Minister Adnan Omran made a speech at the council of the Arab information ministers which on Wednesday started its 33 rd session in Cairo with the participation of 14 Arab ministers of information. Omran said that among other things: “Our great leader (the late President Assad) was of a strong opinion that Syria’s security and progress are an integral part of those of the Arab nation.” He added that according to the late president who devoted his life working in defense of firm national principles, the dignity of Syria is part of the dignity of the Arabs. He added as saying: ” It is my duty to appease brothers ( Arab brothers) that the Syrians will to defend rights and lands is firm and unshakable, and their will to continue protecting the nation’s security and to confronting challenges will remain unwavering thanks to recent decisions made by the country’s different constitutional establishments to elect Lt. Gen. Bashar Assad a new leader of the party and the State,. Minister Omran said describing the traits of Bashar al-Assad: “ Since the very beginning, the new leader has reiterated full abidance by firm national principles, by the nation’s values, by maintaining fraternal ties among the Arabs and by reactivating unceasing efforts to sustain a joint Arab action.” He added that “the feelings of sympathy and condolences offered by leaders of Arab countries over the loss of our President as well as your sympathetic expression with us will enhance our will to go on following the right and firm drive run by our late great leader.” He said: ” we are meeting today amidst critical and very grave regional and international changes that may have impact on the future of our homeland and nation. All-out and collective efforts must unceasingly be exerted by all of us to revive the national feelings, to strengthen the position and the role of the Arab nation, to ensure successes in the battles of the comprehensive socio- economic development and to confront all forms of challenges manifested through the perpetuation of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the Golan and parts of Lebanon and the embargo imposed on some Arab states.” He added ” During the meeting of the Arab leaders recently held in Cairo, the Arab nation has reiterated its strategic option to achieve a just and comprehensive ME peace based on the implementation of UN international legitimacy resolutions, on Israel’s pullout from all occupied Arab territories and the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people to self determination, to an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and to the return back of the Palestinian refugees to their native homeland of Palestine. Omran continued:” There is no doubt that clinging fast to this unified stand and supporting the national resistance, which had attained historic victory in Lebanon, are the bases of confronting successive Israeli governments policy of maneuvering, intransigence and suppression against our people in Palestine and the Golan.” He stressed that “the great and accelerating developments in the fields of information and telecommunications which we witness at the beginning of the new century and the spread of globalization phenomenon in its cultural and information dimensions, will leave deep and big reflects on all societies and states. This requires that we have to adopt unified and coordinated strategies and the blueprints to face these development. And despite that we have taken positive steps at the regional and pan- Arab levels in consolidating our national information structures, we still much work to do at all levels in order to convey our information and cultural message,” the minister said. The participants in the meeting observed a one- minute silence in memory of the late President Hafez al-Assad. At the opening session the Arab ministers stressed in their speeches that the late President al-Assad is a great loss for Syria and the entire region, due to the late President’s brave and wise stances in defending the Arab nation’s dignity and rights.” The speakers expressed their total confidence in the continuity of Syria’s main role under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Dr. Bashar Assad. In their speeches the Arab information ministers called for backing Syria, wishing all success to Bashar al-Assad in his national responsibility. Dignitaries Among the foreign dignitaries who were expected at the funeral were nine heads of State: French President Jacques Chirac US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Iranian President Mohamad Khatami Jordan’s King Abdullah II Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh Lebanon’s President Emile Lahoud The Emir of Kuwait, Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah President Umar al-Bashir of Sudan Japan’s Foreign Minister Yohei Kono Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Canadian External Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma Austria’s President of the National Assembly Heinz Fischer The Vatican’s “foreign minister” Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran Official mourners Lebanese President Lahoud and Prime Minister Hoss Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Iranian President Khatami Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat French President Chirac US Secretary of State Albright Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson UK Foreign Secretary Cook EU leader Romano Prodi Former Russian Prime Minister Primakov Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Tauran Al-Fahoum explained that Arafat will lead a delegation including the chairman of the PLO political department Farouk al-Qaddoumi, the secretary of the executive committee of the PLO Mahmoud Abbas and other senior high ranking Syrian officials. In Baghdad, it was also announced on Sunday that Iraq’s vice President Taha Muhey eddine Marouf will represent his country to the funeral of President Assad.London said on Sunday that the British foreign office minister Robin Cook will take part in the funeral ceremony of the late President. This was expressed by a source at the British foreign ministry and confirmed by the British TV and radio station BBC news on Sunday evening. There was a significant police presence but the streets of Damascus remained calm. State broadcasting carried continuous readings from the Koran after the announcement. Arab and foreign delegations arrived in Damascus to take part in Assad’s funeral, listing Heads of states and Arab and foreign delegations on Monday arrived in Damascus to take part in President Hafez al-Assad’s funeral and to express their condolences on the death of President Assad. Arab and foreign leaders who arrived in Damascus on Monday were Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, President of Malta and members of the accompanying delegation, Somalia Prime Minister Omar Ghaleb and members of the accompanying delegation, the ambassador at the foreign ministry in Ghana, Pakistan’s former prime minister Benazhir Bhuto, foreign minister in South Africa, the speaker of parliament in Algeria ( Today ” Tuesday,” Algeria President Abdul Aziz Butaflika arrived in Damascus to offer condolences), the ambassador at the Thailand’s foreign ministry, the speaker of the Moroccan parliament and members of the accompanying delegation, China’s deputy prime minister Ismael Ahmad, the speaker of parliament in Mauritania Sheikh Sayed Ahmad, Cyprus former speaker of parliament Vassos Lyssarides, the EU ME peace process coordinator Miguel Angel Moratinos, Gambia’s foreign minister Muhammad Amin Sadati and members of the accompanying delegation, Iraq’s vice President Taha Muhei eddine Marouf and members of the accompanying delegation, Spanish deputy prime minister, Portugal’s deputy prime minister, minister of development and human resources in India, a representative for the president ofChile; Mr. Iqbal Rida, the director of the special office of the UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikha Husneiyah Wajed, Norway’s foreign minister, the British foreign minister Robin Cook, and President of the Republic of Bulgaria. Also arrived in Damascus on Monday evening to attend the President’s funeral was a people’s delegation including various social strata of the Palestinian Arabs of 1948 led by Azmi Beshara to offer condolences on the death of the late president. In an arrival statement to SANA’s correspondent at Quneitra Beshara said that ” the people’s delegation expresses unity of Arab national solidarity and to offer condolences to our brothers in Syria on the demise of the great leader Hafez al-Assad,” expressing GREAT PRIDE over Syria’s STEADFASTNESS in the face of pressures. Also arrived in Damascus on Monday to attend the President’s funeral were the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, the speaker of the Austrian parliament, Speaker of the Yugoslavia’s parliament, the secretary general of the Arab League Ismat Abdul Meguid, the President of the republic of Armenia, and many other several Arab and foreign delegations. Henry Kissinger, who said the following about Bashar Assad’s father President Hafez Assad of Syria. “Assad never lost his aplomb. He negotiated daringly and tenaciously like a riverboat gambler to make sure that he exacted the last sliver of available concessions. I once told him that I had seen negotiators who deliberately moved themselves to the edge of a precipice to show that they had no further margin of maneuver. I had even known negotiators who put one foot over the edge, in effect threatening their own suicide. He was the only one who would actually jump off the precipice, hoping that on his way down he could break his fall by grabbing a tree he knew to be there. Assad beamed.” =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- HAFEZ AL ASSAD (1930-2000) President of Syria 1971-2000. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Strong personality While accusations against Assad have been manifold, few have accused him of lack of shrewdness, political cleverness, intelligence and charisma. He has been one of the best informed, and hardest working politicians in the Middle East. He was famous for his long sessions and working days — 18 hours a day — as well as self-deprecating humour. Henry Kissinger (who, visiting in 1973, was the first American foreign minister in Syria in 20 years) noted: His tactic was to open with a statement of the most extreme position to test what the traffic would bear. He might then allow himself to be driven back to the attainable, fighting a dogged rear-guard action that made clear that concessions could be exacted only at a heavy price and that discouraged excessive expectations of them. Assad was well-known for a modest life style, without much excess. He lived in a normal villa in a residential neighbourhood in Damascus. But around him, there were several people who got rich thanks to nepotism in the Syrian society. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= HAFEZ AL ASSAD The Guardian, Wednesday 14 June 2000 President Hafez al-Assad, master of Syria since 1979, was a towering figure of Arab politics, respected and feared in his own country and throughout the Middle East. His death, at 69, marks the end of an era. His achievements were threefold: he gave Syria years of much-needed stability; he turned his relatively small country into a major regional player whose views could not be ignored; and, with patient consistency, he fought to prevent Israel from imposing its will on the Arab world. Externally, the main landmarks of Assad’s life had to do with the struggle against the Zionist occupation. In 1973 he secretly planned the October war with Egypt’s Anwar al-Sadat, but Israel defeated and Egypt took it out of the Arab military equation. When Menachem Begin came to power in Israel in 1977, Assad faced a militant Likud determined to create a “greater Israel”. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon. Rallying his allies, Assad fought back. Israel’s adventure turned into a debacle. From Syria’s point of view, it was Hafez al Assad’s finest hour. Middle East peace-making launched in October 1991. Assad had long argued that peace with the Zionist entity was not worth having unless it was comprehensive, involving an Israeli retreat on all fronts. He opposed separate deals, which he felt divided the Arab camp. It was with great hesitation that he fell in with the formula of separate tracks, which was to Israel’s advantage. The September 1993 Israeli accord with Yasser Arafat’s PLO, which put an end to the intifada in the occupied territories without giving the Palestinians any substantial gains, was another setback. A year later, to Assad’s dismay, Jordan concluded a peace treaty with Israel. These agreements brought the Palestinians and Jordan into Israel’s sphere of influence – a development Assad had struggled for years to prevent. He offered Israel “full peace for full withdrawal”, making clear that a normalisation of relations could take place only once Israel had committed itself to a full withdrawal from the Golan and southern Lebanon. Assad displayed two principal traits. The first was an exceptional degree of political foresight; the second was a foxy fighting instinct when driven to the wall, as he was by the Muslim Brothers at Hama in 1982 or by the Israelis in Lebanon a year later. Patrick Seale https://youtube/watch?v=bdckwk_bNgY&list=PL296291863DA5CC77&index=2 https://youtube/watch?v=dR8uX3NuOxg Hafez al-Assad, politician, born October 6, 1930; died June 10, 2000 The historical stances of immortal leader Hafez Al-Assad made #Syria occupy a leading role in the contemporary world. He left us but is still alive in our hearts and consciousness through his thoughts and principles.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 05:33:27 +0000
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