I will tell [Barack Obama] very simply : present what you have as evidence to the public, be transparent.
BASHAR AL-ASSADI will tell [Barack Obama] very simply : present what you have as evidence to the public, be transparent.
BASHAR AL-ASSADWhen 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.
BASHAR AL-ASSADSyria is geographically and politically in the middle of the Middle East. That is why we are in contact with most of the problems forever, let us say, whether directly or indirectly.
BASHAR AL-ASSADFrom the first day I took the decision as President to defend my country. So, who killed ? That’s another question.
BASHAR AL-ASSADWe can say, you can win the war only when you restore stability in Syria.
BASHAR AL-ASSADThe 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.
BASHAR AL-ASSADWhat the army is doing is cleaning those areas, and the indication that the army is strong is that it’s making advancement in that area. It never went to one area and couldn’t enter to it – that’s an indication.
BASHAR AL-ASSADYou said treaties, and a Russian official said ; we have not agreement… contracts, that we have to fulfill, and those contracts are like any country ; you buy armaments, you buy anything you want.
BASHAR AL-ASSADWhenever you have a war, the civilians and the innocents will pay the price. That’s in any war, any war is a bad war.
BASHAR AL-ASSADWe 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.
BASHAR AL-ASSADThis is the Middle East, where every week you have something new; so whatever you talk about this week will not be valuable next week.
BASHAR AL-ASSADYou have different parties, different factions, you have different ideologies ; you have everything in Middle East region now.
BASHAR AL-ASSADWe’ve been dealing with this kind of terrorism since the fifties, since the Muslim Brotherhood came to Syria at that time.
BASHAR AL-ASSADIn the eighties, we asked for international coalition against terrorism after the Muslim Brotherhood crisis in Syria when they started killing, of course they were defeated at that time. We asked for the same thing. So, this is a long-term policy that we base our policy on for years now.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD[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.
BASHAR AL-ASSADMany 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.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD