Syria is prepared to defend itself against an attack from Israel but would prefer a peaceful and logical solution to the Middle East conflict, President Bashar Assad has said. The Syrian president said Israel and the United States have «abandoned» the Mideast peace process, and Syria has «to stay prepared all the time,» according to an interview that was published in Saturday's editions of the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba. «It is normal then that you expect that if there is no peace, there could be war. ... So, we started to get as ready as we could,» he said without elaborating on how Syria was getting ready. The president was responding to a question that asked if Damascus was «able and prepared now to face an Israeli offensive or to enter a war with Israel?» In the interview, Assad also repeated his desire to see the resumption of the land-for-peace negotiations with Israel that broke down in 2000. In exchange for peace, Syria wants Israel to give up the Golan Heights. Israel captured the strategic highground from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War. «When one defends his country, one has to be fierce,» he said. «But for us in Syria, we always say that the logical solution that does not carry high costs in the whole area, not only in Syria, is the peace process,» Assad said.
