Local Editor

Damascus- al-Intiqad

Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa assured that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ienjoys legitimacy from the Syrian people. Al-Sharaa's stance came in response to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as she claimed that al-Assad has lost legitimacy.

Al-Sharaa added that Clinton's comments are meaningless. "Syria stresses that the legitimacy of its political leadership is based neither on the United States nor on others, it is exclusively from the will of the Syrian people," he said.

In addition, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the United States and its representatives must not interfere in Syrian affairs and must "refrain from any actions that could provoke the sentiments of the Syrian people and the pride that they have in their national independence."

It also called for respect of the state and rejected any foreign intervention into affairs of the state. The statement also declared that the "liberation of the Golan" is "one of the aims that represents national consensus." Israel took the Golan Heights in the 1967 war.