‘Don’t transpose peace process’ (Irish News)

'Don't transpose peace process'

William Graham (Irish News)
21 October 2009

The Irish peace process cannot be transposed to the Middle East, the Syrian ambassador to Britain said during a visit to Stormont yesterday.

However, Dr Sami Khiyami said the process had illustrated the importance of “patience” and had increased the credibility of George Mitchell, the former US senator who chaired the Good Friday Agreement talks and is now the US special Middle East envoy.

“If you ask me about lessons learned, for instance, the Northern Ireland process has increased our admiration of the honesty of Mr Mitchell who has a very important role to play in the Middle East,” Dr Khiyami said.

“The Northern Ireland process taught us patience in waiting for the results to come.

“I think the conflict in Northern Ireland was there for too many years but that now things are getting better.

“The fundamental differences between the two problems are very important and we can learn but not adopt any Irish experience.”

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