Dr. Bashir Mohammad:

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to be in this Parliament to talk about the suffering of my country. The gentlemen who have spoken are angels of peace coming from the heart of Syria. They represent the Syrian people and Syrian suffering and they are Syrian made, representing all colours and diversity of Syria. I am sure members know about the history of Syrian and the country's diversity, beauty and dignity.

The question arises as to why we came here. We love Ireland. We feel Ireland is the land of peace. It never occupied or colonised any country. Its missions and Army are always helping to maintain peace all over the world. We love this. We have close relations and we have a similar society and way of living.

Regarding the difficulties and atrocities in my country, it is a long story and there is too much to say, but I will try to condense it as much as possible. A few days after the events started, the hospital in Homs, the third largest city in the country, was attacked by militia carrying guns and shouting slogans against the Government. Everything was burned and stolen. After a few days, when circumstances improved, we discovered a nurse who was left hanged in the hospital. We realised at that time that we were facing difficult days. Hospitals in Syria were always safe, places where people could be given reassurance, satisfaction, help and support. Unfortunately, in my country, hospitals became soft targets. They became places for fighting and for attacks against all aspects of safety, security and reassurance. We can say for sure - I do not want to go through the presentation now - that 50% of our hospitals and medical centres have been destroyed, damaged, looted and attacked. Our staff have been kidnapped, tortured and slaughtered. Our ambulances have been stolen, damaged and burned, and sometimes used to kill people with explosions.

After the difficult relations with Europe began, we depended on ourselves for the manufacture of medication. Using the help and advice of friends and other countries, ours became a country that was able to export medication to different countries. My colleague mentioned a figure of approximately 80 countries. I definitely recall 54 countries to which we used to send medicinal products. Our medication met 80% to 95% of our needs. However, our factories were destroyed, damaged and looted and we became reliant on medication from the black market, purchased despite the weak purchasing power of our currency because of the siege. We became unable to buy medication for the poor people. In the time before 2011, our medications were well known to be of good quality and cheap.

The national health service in Syria was free for people. We used to pay only a little for very specialised surgeries, such as heart surgery. There were ambitious plans by the Syrian Government in 2011 to build 25 more hospitals. I refer to specialist hospitals, including university medical colleges. The objective was to create prosperity and peace for all the country. I do not know what happened but I would like to make one point clearly. Of course, we love peace. We are looking for peace. This is from the heart of the Syrian people. The sanctions applied to our country destroyed, damaged, killed and depleted our capacity to manufacture medication and treat our patients. It affected us in a very devastating way. The sanctions killed more than ISIS did.

I am proud to be a member of the royal college of this green country that we love. We would love the sanctions to be lifted now. We would love a good initiative to be launched from this highly dignified Parliament, and by the Irish people who are very close to our hearts. We would love the help, support, advice and experience of Ireland so we could rebuild the hospitals and meet our medical needs. We seek advice and for specialist hospitals to be built in the name of Ireland. We need our doctors to come to Ireland. Doctors from our medical college in Damascus specialise to a high level all over the world, including in every hospital in Ireland, England, Germany, eastern Europe and Latin America. We are proud of our universities and of our capacity to rebuild. We need the sanctions to be lifted and to be given an opportunity. We need support and advice. Ireland is a friend of Syria and we love it. We are looking forward to rebuilding good relations with this country as soon as possible. The airlines should be allowed easy access so help can be provided easily. The relationship with this country should be allowed to develop. I hope Ireland will be first in a process of opening relations with other countries, in medicine and other parts of life.

I assure the members that we are able, with the help of our angels of peace, to rebuild Syria much better, create peace and defeat terrorism. Stability will be the cornerstone of stability throughout the world, specifically in Europe. I cannot tell whether there will be trouble everywhere if Syria does not succeed. One can see with one's eyes what is happening now. We are, in our way, willing to create peace in this country with the help the Syrian people, Syrian leaders and representatives.