Army Day celebrated in Syria, Lebanon

Arabic News ^ | 8/2/2003

[yonif]

The Armed Forces; Army, Navy and Air Forces celebrated on Friday the 58th anniversary of the establishment of Syrian Army.

In this occasion and under the directives of Commander in Chief of the Army and Armed Forces, Bashar Al-Assad, Deputy Commander in Chief of the Army and Armed Forces, Deputy Premier, and Minister of Defence 1st Lt. Gen. Moustafa Tlass accompanied by Army and Armed Forces Chief of General Staff, Gen. Hasan Tourkmani paid a visit to the Martyrs Tomb in Najha.

Speeches which were delivered in the celebration, has stressed Syria's firm and principled stances regarding peace process based on the international resolutions and Arab peace initiative.

Speeches highly lauded President Bashar Al-Assad's stances and continuous efforts on the regional and international arenas. These stances and efforts assert the president's commitment to Arab nation's interests and to steadfastness against campaigns of delusion practiced by Israel in order to affect our national and principled stances.

Speeches touched upon the developments achieved in Syria through the last three years in the frame work of the development and modernization process under the leadership of President Bashar Al-Assad which reflected positively on the whole social life in Syria and formed a strong basis for facing challenges.

They spoke of "the brutal Israeli practices against the unarmed Palestinian civilians in an attempt to destroy their steadfastness and strong will."

Speeches called on an active Arab action stressing that resistance is the only active option for the restoration of the usurped rights and the occupied territories.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud stressed the joint Syrian-Lebanese stance towards the ongoing events in Iraq and Palestine.

In his speech marling the 58th anniversary of Army Day, Lahoud underlined that solving the regional and international crisis must be based on justice, international resolutions and on returning rights to their legitimate owners.

Lebanese Army leadership underlined that President Al-Assad and Lahoud expressed the Syrian-Lebanese joint stance towards issues of the region and causes of the Middle East through their commitment to just and comprehensive peace based on the international resolutions as the only solution which insures security and stability in the region.

[Snickersnee]

Trained by the French; equipped by the Soviets. Need I say more? Winner of the "Perpetual Pinata" award from the IDF on four occasions ('47, '56, '73, '82.) Kind of makes you want to wonder what there is to "celebrate."

[Snickersnee]

BTW, the press blurb above sounds more like something you'd read in KCNA!