Al-Assad: Dialogue Not to Succeed Away from End of Violence, Arms, Money Flow

Local Editor

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed Monday that Syria neither started the war nor chose it.

In an interview with the German TV, al-Assad pointed to the existence of terrorists carrying enough of sophisticated weapons to kill innocent people, and to destruct the country's infrastructure and public places.

On his call for dialogue, he reiterated that "the dialogue initiative put forward to solve the Syrian crisis will not succeed if it does not stop the violence in Syria as well as the flow of money and weapons [from Turkey and Qatar] into the country."
Al-Assad further expressed his willingness "to adopt any decision that might emerge from the dialogue between the government and the opposition."

In response to a question about his political future, al-Assad said, "the decision regarding my presidency is related to the Syrian people," reiterating his acceptance to all what is issued from the national dialogue.
Regarding the allegations of Syria's preparedness to use chemical weapons, the head of the Syrian state wondered: "Have you heard of any country that used chemical weapons to fight terrorism, I haven't heard of this. How can you use such kinds of weapons while fighting small groups of terrorists spread everywhere especially in the cities?"
"This is not realistic, but they [Western sides] use it either as a pretext and a kind of pressure or to make an aggression against Syria."

On the ground situation, he stated that " you can't talk of good situation when you have assassinations and killings by terrorists coming from abroad and from inside Syria."
However, al-Assad assured that there is no incubating environment in the Syrian society for these terrorists.
Regarding the Turkish step of deploying Patriots on the borders with Syria, the Syrian President highlighted that "this step has been part of the missile shield that started a year ago, because many Turks refuse that their country is part of this program."

According to al-Assad, "Racip Tayyeb Erdogan has been trying hard to rally the Turks to greatly support his policy on Syria. However, he failed."
"He distributed the Patriots on our borders to give the impression that Turkey is in danger because Syria might attack it," he added, and noted that " this is not true."


Source: al-Ahed News, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org