Assad: Give Us The Golan Or We Won’t Pressure Israel To Give Jerusalem To The Palestinians

This would be just oh so tragic:

Syrian President Bashar Assad told the BBC in an interview published Monday that his country would refuse to attend the regional peace summit schedule to take place in the United States next month unless all of its concerns are addressed. Assad was referring to the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. “So far we didn’t have the invitation and we didn’t have any clarification about anything,” Assad said. “If they don’t talk about the Syrian occupied territory, no, there’s no way for Syria to go there. The Syrian president also told the BBC that Syria reserves the right to respond to the Israel Air Force’s alleged attack last month inside its territory.

In addition to the usual “we’re crying on the inside” stuff, we do want to make sure that you catch this genre-defining example of mind boggling if-it’s-inconvenient-just-deny-it totalitarianism:

Syrian President Bashar Assad told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday that IAF warplanes attacked an “unused military building” in his country last month and said Damascus reserves the right to retaliate. But Assad said his country was not about to attack Israel in response, suggesting he did not want to hurt chances at peace talks with the Jewish state. The comments were the first by the Syrian leader about an alleged September 6 IAF air incursion over Syria that raised speculation that warplanes had hit weapons headed for Hizbullah or even a nascent nuclear installation – reports Damascus has repeatedly denied.

Yeah sure. And there are also no gays in Iran. Or Syria. Or whatever.

References:
* Assad: Syria won’t attend summit unless issue of Golan addressed [Ha'aretz]
* Assad: IAF hit ‘unused army building’ [JPost]

Previously:
* Russia Gives Iran Cutting-Edge Anti-Ship Missiles To Give To Hezbollah
* Syria In Full Pouting Mode About How Israel Humiliatingly Took Away Their Nuclear Toys
* STRATFOR: Syria Massing Troops On The Golan, Israeli Skittishness May Mean War (Plus: Iran’s "Final Response" To Israel On October 12)

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit