DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Syria has urged Europe to engage in serious efforts to secure a just peace settlement in the Middle East on clear and well-defined bases.
Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told a visiting British parliamentary delegation from the Labor Party Monday that "Europe is requested to contribute seriously in building peace in the Middle East on clear bases in harmony with relative international resolutions and the principle of trading peace for land."
Bilal stressed that without achieving peace and stability, no progress can take place in the region.
He also affirmed Syria's support for "any true and serious chance" for a just and comprehensive peace that would create a new Middle East based on the cultures and history of its peoples that would serve future generations.
"Eliminating terrorism can be achieved by mobilizing international efforts through the United Nations to define terrorism and its root causes and lay down a joint mechanism, not only in the military sense, but also in the sense of securing the people's legitimate struggle against foreign occupation," Bilal added.
In another development, Syrian authorities Monday released on bail three intellectuals it arrested four months ago for signing a document calling for the correction of Lebanese-Syrian relations known as the Damascus-Beirut Declaration.
The head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, Ammar Kurbi, said the three were released on a $20 bail, but their trial will be held while the four are out of prison on charges of tarnishing Syria's reputation abroad.
However, Kurbi said, the court refused to free on bail leading political and rights activists Michel Kilo and Anwar al-Bunni.
The Beirut-Damascus Declaration, signed by 134 Syrian intellectuals and a similar number of Lebanese counterparts, called for correcting relations between Lebanon and Syria, demarcating their common border and exchanging diplomatic relations. The Syrian authorities rounded up 10 of the signatories, but later released eight.
