“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.”

Any American strike will not destroy as much as the terrorists have already destroyed in Syria ; sometimes the repercussions could be many doubles the strike itself.

That’s all before the crisis. We always have this kind of cooperation with Iran [Supplies, weaponry].

It’s our right to defend our country against any kind of invasion.

The part in Aleppo, what [people] call it the eastern part, is occupied by the terrorists for the last three years, and they have been using the civilians as human shields.

It’s not exactly fair to make a mistake yourself and then start blaming others for it.

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.

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.

Syria 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.

We can say, you can win the war only when you restore stability in Syria.

We learned that lesson very well, especially in the eighties, that terrorists cannot be used as a political card, you cannot put it in your pocket, because it’s like a scorpion; it will bite you someday.

A bomb is a bomb, what’s the difference between different kinds of bombs? All bombs are to kill, but it’s about how to use it.

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.

How can you be afraid to feel? Isn’t fear a feeling? If you’re feeling fear, you’ve felt one of the most negative emotions there is to feel.

With the time, yes we can be worried, because the secular state should reflect secular society, and this secular society, with the time, if you don’t get rid of those terrorists and these extremists and the Wahabi style, of course it will influence at least the new and the coming generations.

There’s a video on YouTube where the terrorists clearly make trials [of chemical weapons] on a rabbit and kill the rabbit and said “this is how we’re going to kill the Syrian people.”

You want me to believe American evidence and don’t want me to believe the indications that we have. We live here, this is our reality.