The International Conference on the Return of Refugees To Syria opened in Damascus’s Umayyad Palace, this morning, but without the participation of the U.S. and its allies, including the EU and other countries hosting millions of Syrian refugees. The two-day conference aims to relay objective information regarding the situation to an international audience, as well as to discuss the steps undertaken by Syrian authorities to restore peace to the country and to return the Syrian refugees to their homeland, reported Sputnik International.
Syrian President Bashar al Assad told the attendees during his opening address that “some states embraced the refugees based on ethical principles while other states in the West and in our region also are exploiting them in the ugliest way through transforming their humanitarian issue into a political paper for bargaining, in addition to making them as a source for money without taking into consideration the real suffering lived by the Syrians abroad.”
“Instead of the actual work to create the appropriate conditions for their return, they forced them to stay through temptation sometimes or through exerting pressures on them or intimidating them, and this isn’t surprising as those governments have worked hard for spreading terrorism in Syria which caused the death of hundreds of thousands of its people, and displaced millions of them,” Assad continued. “Those states can’t be logically the same ones which are the reason and the road for their return to their homeland, and their rejection to participate in this conference is the best evidence on that.”
One of the main obstacles to the return of refugees, Assad observed, are “the illegitimate economic sanctions and the siege imposed by the U.S. regime and its allies” which “hinder the efforts exerted by the institutions of the Syrian state which aim to rehabilitate the infrastructure in the areas which had been destroyed by terrorism so as the refugees can return and live a decent life in normal conditions, and this is the main reason for the reluctance of many of them to return to their areas and villages due to the absence of the minimum basic requirements for life.”
Assad’s complete speech is posted to the Syria’s official SANA news agency, http://sana.sy/en/?p=209573
