“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.”

[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.

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.

[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.

None of us and none of the Arabs trust Israel.

Using terrorism or jihadists or extremists for any political agenda is immoral.

The United States accused Syria, and because you accused you have to bring evidence [of chemical weapons], this first of all. We have to find evidences when we are there.

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.

This war [in Syria] is going to support Al-Qaeda and the same people that killed Americans in the 11th of September.

But for us, in Syria, we have principles. We’ll do anything to prevent the region from another crazy war. It’s not only Syria. Because it will start in Syria.

It’s very simple ; once the Western countries stop supporting those terrorists and making pressure on their puppet countries and client states like Saudi Arabia and Turkey and others, you’ll have no problem in Syria. It will be solved easily.

At the end, killing is killing. Massacring is massacring.

In any war, people will pay the price.

It’s not about me, again, this fight is not my fight, it’s not the fight of the government ; it’s the fight of the country, of the Syrian people.

We have hopes that we can see rational American presidents; fair, obey the international law, deal with other countries according to mutual respect, parity, etc., but we all know that this is only wishful thinking and fantasy.

We have the precedent of Collin Powell ten years ago, when he showed the evidence, it was false, and it was forged.

Simply naming objectives isn’t sufficient for a vision. If I say that I’m going to build a large palace, but I don’t have any money to do so, then that is not a vision – it’s an illusion.