Think of the war against terrorism. In my view, Washington’s approach can be compared to a doctor constantly banging away at a tumor instead of removing it surgically.
BASHAR AL-ASSADOur democracy should reflect our culture and our habits and our customs and our reality at the same time.
More Bashar al-Assad Quotes
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We feel pain for every Syrian victim.
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This is cooperation [with Hezbollah, Iran , from Russia], I don’t know what you mean by support. We have cooperation with countries for decades. Why talk about this cooperation now ?
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Even a president makes mistakes.
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We don’t discuss this issue [ chemical weapons ] in public because we never said that we have it, and we never said that we don’t have it. It’s a Syrian issue ; it’s a military issue we never discuss in public with anyone.
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Some of these agendas wanted me to quit, very simply, so they said “we have all the guarantees if you want to leave, and all the money and everything you want.” Of course, you just ignore that.
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Without the public support, we cannot withstand two years and a half. Look at the other countries, look what happened in Libya, in Tunisia and in Egypt.
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Revolution should be Syrian, cannot be revolution imported from abroad.
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Since its very inception, Israel has been a threat.
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It would be a mistake to link anything that Israel does to a certain circumstance. And it is a mistake to feel comfortable in any circumstance just because Israel did not act on it.
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We’ve been dealing with this kind of terrorism since the fifties, since the Muslim Brotherhood came to Syria at that time.
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We didn’t say that 80% [of terrorists], for example, or the majority or the vast majority, are foreigners. We said the vast majority are Al-Qaeda or Al-Qaeda offshoot organizations in this region.
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From Russia for example, we have political support, which is different from the cooperation. We have cooperation for 60 years now, but now we have political support.
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To have opposition ? We have it, and you can go and meet with them. We have some of them within the government, we have some of them outside the government. They are opposition. We have it.
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Its not about learning to trust. Its about learning what it is I place my trust in and why. Its like learning to see the forest for the trees. You cannot see the forest for the trees unless you are outside the forest.
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Before the 11th of September, in my discussions with many officials of the United States, some of them are Congressmen, I used to say that “don’t deal with terrorists as playing games.” It’s a different story. You’re going to pay the price if you’re not wise in dealing with terrorists.
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I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria.
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As I said, this [repercussions] may take different forms : direct and indirect. Direct when people want to retaliate, or governments. Indirect when you’re going to have instability and the spread of terrorism all over the region that will influence the west directly.
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Many people do not understand the difference between peace and a peace treaty. If you want to have real peace with normal relations between people, you need to have comprehensive peace.
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If you want to talk about mistakes, every country has mistakes, every government has mistakes, every person has mistakes. When you have a war, you have more mistakes. That’s the natural thing.
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Freedom and democracy are nothing but instruments, just like stability. The goal is called progress and growth. Anyone who puts freedom ahead of stability is hurting growth.
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[Hezbollah forces] cannot exist all over Syria anyway, for many reasons, but they exist on the borders.
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In the end a lie is a lie.
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Regarding fighting terrorism, we are ready to cooperate with anyone in this world with no conditions. That’s crux of our policy, not today, not yesterday; for years, even before the war on Syria, we always said that.
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Trust that the thing in life that excites you the most comes complete with all the tools necessary to support you in the doing of that thing. It is automatic; it is built in. All you need to do is act on the opportunities that doing that situation brings to you.
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Foreigners cannot bring freedom, cannot bring democracy, because this is related to the culture, to the different factors that affect or influence that society. You cannot bring it, you cannot import it.
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Actually, he gave false evidence [of chemical weapons]. In this case,[John] Kerry didn’t even present any evidence. He talked “we have evidence” and he didn’t present anything. Not yet, nothing so far ; not a single shred of evidence.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD