Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA-Activities of the 3rd General Conference of the General Union of Palestinian Communities in Europe kicked off Saturday at Dar al-Assad for Culture and Arts in Damascus.
Representatives of Palestinian resistance factions, Syrian national parties, political and popular unions and gatherings in Syria and Palestine are taking part in the two-day conference.
Assistant regional secretary of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party Hilal al-Hilal stressed in a speech the importance of convening the conference in Damascus given that it represents a “cultural center for the Levant and the heart of Arabism.”
“The Syrian people only knows victory, and will never lose the compass in defending national and pan-Arab causes,” he affirmed.
He indicated that the scheme at work in Syria seeks to set up the so-called “New Middle East” on the wreckage of a nation “that history has always known as a leading nation and civilization.”
Syria’s Grand Mufti Dr. Ahmad Badr-Eddin Hassoun, for his part, said the crisis in Syria is “a retribution for its stances in support of the Arab causes, particularly the Palestinian cause.”
“Syria’s main goal will remain the liberation of Palestine and every inch of the occupied Arab lands,” he pointed out.
Addressing the Palestinian communities in Europe, Hassoun said “You’ve come here to convene this conference in Syria which does not recognize the boundaries set up by the ominous Sykes-Picot agreement.”
Participants indicated in speeches delivered during the conference that they came to Syria to prove to the whole world “that we are one nation through thick and thin, and to say that we disown those who have used religion in service of an organization bereft of all values and ethics.”
Manal Ismael
