Syria's new President, Dr Bashar al-Assad, was sworn into office in Damascus yesterday and in a speech to parliament stood firm on Syria's insistence that Israel must return the whole of the Israeli-occupied Golan, while calling for new strategies for Syria's development.
"We want to liberate the whole of our territory, back to the June 4th line," he said, referring to the frontier in force on June 4th, 1967, when the strategic Golan Heights were captured by Israeli forces.
"The liberation of our land is an essential priority, and is as important as achieving a fair and comprehensive peace," said Dr Bashar, to the applause of the 249 deputies in the chamber.
"There is no proof that Israel's peace intentions are sincere," he added, accusing it of "placing obstacles" on the road to peace by agreeing to return only 95 per cent of the Golan.
He called on the US to "play its role impartially in ensuring the implementation of UN resolutions [restoring] the rights of the Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians". "We are in a hurry to make peace, but we are not ready to give away the land. The people of the Golan are Syrian Arabs," he said.
He also held up Syrian-Lebanese relations as "a model for relations between Arab countries". Syria, which has some 35,000 troops in Lebanon, is the power broker in its smaller neighbour.
On the domestic front, Dr Bashar's speech called for "new strategies" to push economic development, but he ruled out any Western-type democracy for Syria.