The captain doesn’t think about death, or life, he thinks about saving his ship.
BASHAR AL-ASSADIsrael has WMD, and it has to sign [chemical warfare agreement], and Israel is occupying our land, so that’s we talked about the Middle East, not Syria, not Israel ; it should be comprehensive.
More Bashar al-Assad Quotes
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We don’t discuss this issue [conversations with Russia] as a government, but we discuss the repercussions, which is more important because sometimes repercussions could be more destroying than the strike itself.
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It is even more so when it comes to Iraq, which is a large Arab country with scientific, material, and human resources and is able to accomplish, at the least, what Lebanon accomplished, and more.
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Every friend of Syria is looking for peaceful solution, and we are convinced about that. We have this advice, and without this advice we are convinced about it.
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If the American administration want to support Al-Qaeda – go ahead. That’s what we have to tell them, go ahead and support Al-Qaeda, but don’t talk about rebels and free Syrian army.
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Actually, the terrorists have been killing our people since the beginning of this crisis two years and a half ago, and the Syrian people wanted the government and the state institutions and the army and the police to defend them, and that’s what happened.
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In the initiative that we issued at the beginning of year 2013 we said every party with no exceptions as long as they give up their armaments.
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On the border area with Lebanon where [Hezbollah forces] want to protect themselves and cooperate with us, but they don’t exist all over Syria.
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You cannot have democracy without the institutions. You cannot have a democracy that is built on the moods of self-interested people.
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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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We’re not in the area where the alleged chemical attack happened. I said alleged. We’re not sure that anything happened.
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Even a president makes mistakes.
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First of all, when you have a doctor who cut the leg to prevent the patient from the gangrene if you have to, we don’t call butcher ; you call him a doctor, and thank you for saving the lives.
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Hezbollah fighters are on the borders with Lebanon where the terrorists attacked them. On the borders with Lebanon, this is where Hezbollah retaliated, and this is where we have cooperation, and that’s good.
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Our democracy should reflect our culture and our habits and our customs and our reality at the same time.
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Any strike will be as direct support to Al-Qaeda offshoot that’s called Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. You’re right about this. It’s going to be direct support.
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You have different parties, different factions, you have different ideologies ; you have everything in Middle East region now.
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The external support can never substitute internal support, the example that we have to look at very well is Egypt and Tunisia ; they have all the support from the West and from the Gulf and from most of the countries of the world.
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[It is important] to have stability and to have security, which means humanitarian equals fighting terrorists. You cannot talk about humanitarian aid and supporting the terrorists at the same time. You cannot, you have to choose.
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The Russians always base their policies on values, and these values are the sovereignty of other countries, the international law, respecting other people, other cultures, so they don’t interfere in whatever is related to the future of Syria or the Syrian people.
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When you have terrorism, you have a war. When you have a war, you always have innocent lives that could be the victim of any war, so, we don’t have to discuss what the image in the west before discussing the image in Syria. That’s the question.
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The problem with the West is that they start with political reform going towards democracy. If you want to go towards democracy, the first thing is to involve the people in decision making, not to make it.
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[Chemical weapons] isn’t about what the United States believe in, it’s about the reality that we have, and this reality, we own it, we don’t have to discuss it.
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Every country has criminals who have to be fought. They can exist anywhere, including the government or the army – or outside the government and army.
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Because of this interference for the last fifty years, that’s why they are very good only in creating problems, not in solving problems. That’s the problem with the American role.
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The Russians are fighting for us, for the world, and for their self.
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This is reality. If [the American officials] want to believe, that’s good, that will help them understand the region and be more successful in their policies.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD