By

Vanessa Beeley

21st Century Wire

On the 24th of July 2016, the US Peace Council delegation entered Syria for a week of talks and meetings with Syrian religious leaders, government spokespeople, parliamentarians, education ministers, Syrian NGOs and Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

Full reports of the many and varied discussions and the extraordinary conversation with President Bashar Al Assad will be forthcoming.



We have put subtitles to the Syrian media reports as a trailer for the fascinating insights that were shared by all those we met both in the Government and in the many opposition parties on the ground in Syria, not those living offshore in the US or holding meetings on the future of Syria in ornate and luxurious hotels in the Gulf States or Istanbul.

Our meeting with the Grand Mufti (photo, above) was one of the most profoundly moving and eloquent introductions to the mind of a true man of peace and reconcilitiation.

“If you do not extinguish the fire in Syria, it will engulf the world” ~ The Grand Mufti

One particular story had many of the delegates visibly moved. The Mufti told us of one time when he was leaving the Masjid [Mosque] and a 10 year old boy came up to him in the corridor and asked the Mufti “what is your secret?“. The Mufti replied “ I dont understand” and the child repeated the question “what is your secret? I am a Christian child, what obliges me when you are on the TV to listen to you. I have learned and loved my Christianity through you.”

This simple story symbolises the grace, humility and tremendous universally unifying influence of this genuinely compassionate and forgiving human being who is determined to uphold the principle of secular unity that has held the Syrian people together against the vast array of divisive foreign forces pitted against them.

Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad personally welcomed the delegation at the top of the staircase before showing them to the meeting room where he responded to a variety of incisive and challenging questions with ease, intelligence and humour, displaying a disarming honesty and visionary logic that belies the hostile NATO and gulf media demonization of a man who has withstood five years of “Assad must go” mantras from the Congressional “regime change” promoters.

When asked how he has personally weathered such hostile media intervention with such dignity and diplomacy, the President replied:

“I stand for a cause, not for myself. Were I fighting to keep myself in power, the people would have got rid of me by now. This gives me the confidence to respond to such media attacks.”

The following is a report from SANA on the meeting with President Bashar Al Assad:

“President Bashar al-Assad said the policy of the US administration in the region goes against the interests and values of the American people, adding that they are getting increasingly violent at the expense of logic and common sense.

During his meeting on Thursday with the US Peace Council delegation currently visiting Syria led by Henry Lowendorf, President al-Assad said the US policies are at a collision course with the interests of the US citizens and the peoples of the world, indicating that the role of the United States as a superpower should otherwise be positive and based on fostering knowledge, science and technology instead of chaos and destruction.

President al-Assad gave a concise review of the events in Syria since the start up until now, indicating that the crisis which later morphed into a war on the Syrian people was prompted by Syria’s rejection to have a regional role that runs counter to the interests of its people.

The delegation members said their visit is aimed at having a close look into the situation in Syria and conveying their first-hand accounts to the US public opinion, vowing to do their best to stop the war and US and Western interference in Syria.

They underlined their vehement opposition to the US belligerent and interventionist policies, pledging to exert efforts to change this policy.

President al-Assad, for his part, praised such visits for their importance in helping governments change their policies if they are willing to.

In a statement to journalists, Lowendorf said the delegation held “fruitful and constructive” talks with President al-Assad.

“We had the honor to meet President al-Assad. He was straightforward and wanted us to be so. We related to him what we saw and he provided rational, accurate and wise answers for our questions… He impressed us with his insight not only about the situation in Syria but also about world powers,” he added.”

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