Syrian president stresses support to Palestinians

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday underlined his country's support to the Palestinians amid an Israeli military escalation triggered by the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.

Assad voiced the support at a meeting of the National Progressive Front, a coalition of political parties under the leadership of the ruling al-Baath party, according to the official SANA news agency.

"Syria stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Palestinian people in their crisis and faced with Israeli repression," Assad was quoted as saying.

This is Assad's first reaction to the crisis sparked by the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid on June 25.

Assad denounced that "Israel's aggressive stand and its unjust accusations against (Palestinian) national forces serve to increase our commitment to Arab rights."

The president also pointed out that Syria is making efforts to support the Palestinian people and bring about the success of the national dialogue among Palestinian factions.

Israel has accused Khaled Mashaal, politburo leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) based in Damascus, of ordering the kidnapping and urged Syrian leaders to pressure Mashaal to facilitate the release of the kidnapped soldier.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a phone talk that solution to a kidnapping crisis depends on Damascus.

"The directive to carry out operations and orders to carry out terror attacks all come from there and the Syrian leadership must dismantle the terror groups' headquarters in its territories," Olmert said.

Source: Xinhua