IN an interview given to Russia’s RIA Novosti and Sputnik news agencies, Syria’s President al-Assad said that we always announce that we are ready to cooperate with any country who is genuinely ready or wants or has the will to fight terrorism.
He added that we already know that the West supports the terrorists and it doesn’t have a will to fight them. The following is part of the interview:
Question: Thank you, Mr. President, for giving an opportunity for this interview, and I will start with the recent tragic event in Aleppo, where the majority of those killed and wounded were children. Who do you think organised this crime, and on what purpose?
President Assad: You’re talking about different factions, all of them are linked to Al-Qaeda or al-Nusra Front, and one of those factions attacked the buses that wanted to transport the same civilians outside of al-Foua’a and Kefraya beside Aleppo, and they attacked those buses and they burned them, and it was shown on the internet, where they said ‘we won’t allow this reconciliation to happen, we’re going to kill every civilian that wants to use the buses,’ and that’s what happened. When we thought that everything is ready to implement that reconciliation, they did what they announced, and they are al-Nusra Front and I think everybody agrees that this is al-Nusra.
Question: And how many people have died since the beginning of the war, at this point?
President Assad: Actually, we can talk only about official numbers. The numbers that we’ve been hearing in the Western media during the last six years were not precise, it’s only to inflate the number just to show how horrible the situation, to use it as humanitarian pretext to intervene in Syria. So, as a state, we only talk about tens of thousands of victims till this moment.
Question: So, you’re not agreeing with the number that the United Nations give?
President Assad: No.
Question: Let’s talk a little bit about this missile strike from the United States. So, the Shairat airbase quickly returned to its operation, but many wondered why the Syrian Army didn’t hit the US missiles, didn’t try to down it, why?
President Assad: Technically, it’s complicated, because the missile must see its target, let’s say, our missile, and to see it you need a radar that can see every angle of the country which is impossible because you’re talking about terrain and topography.
Second, maybe a few people knew that the terrorists at the very beginning of the attacks, they started by destroying the Syrian air defence.
Question: So, how many items from the air defence system you lost during these attacks by terrorists before the US launched its attack?
President Assad: A huge number, a huge number. It was the first target. The first target was the air defence. We don’t have to give a precise number now, because as you know it’s military information, but I can tell you more than fifty percent.
Question: So, Damascus has said that it is ready for the mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to come and to investigate the Khan Sheikhoun incident. Have there been any contacts between you and this organisation, and what are the possible dates for the arrival of the first team of experts?
President Assad: Actually, since the first attack a few years ago that happened in Aleppo by the terrorists against our army, we asked the United Nations to send an investigation delegation in order to prove what we said about the terrorists having gases used against our army, and later many incidents happened in that way, and they didn’t send any delegation.
It’s the same now. We formally sent a letter to the United Nations, we asked them in that letter to send a delegation in order to investigate what happened in Khan Sheikhoun. Of course till this moment they didn’t send, because the West and the United States blocked any delegation from coming, because if they come, they will find that all their narratives about what happened in Khan Sheikhoun and then the attack on Shairat airport was a false flag, was a lie.
Question: What is your view of what happened there? Because there were a lot of different reports of different kinds, and misinterpretation and accusation of fake news. So, what happened there according to your information?
President Assad: Actually, that area is under the control of al-Nusra Front which is Al-Qaeda. The only information the whole world has is what this organisation or this group – which is al-Nusra – published on YouTube, on the internet.
First of all, we don’t know if the site that we attacked that day half an hour before noon, about 11:30, was a chemical warehouse or depot or anything like this. And their story said that the attack happened at 6, 6:30 in the morning. We didn’t launch any attack at that time. So, you have two possibilities: the first one is that there was an attack at lunch time or at about 11:30.
The other possibility that we believe in is that it was a false flag, there was no attack, all what we saw as pictures and videos was like the videos we’ve been seeing for the last year or two years or more regarding the White Helmets, the humanitarian Al Qaeda which is an elusive story, let’s say, it doesn’t exist anyway, and the picture that shows children being killed by Russian airstrike to discover later that it wasn’t a real picture, they put a boy, they covered him with mud and blood, fake blood of course, and so on.
If there was gas leakage or attack, and you’re talking about 60 dead in that city, how could the city continue its life normally? I mean even if you look at the pictures, you can see that the rescuers – presumable rescuers – were rescuing people without masks, without gloves, and they were moving freely. How?
They didn’t evacuate the city. No-one left the city, life continued as normal, and this is mass destruction. The other day, they attacked Shairat where they said there was the gas depots, and they attacked all the depots, and there was no gas coming out of that airport.
No-one of our army officers or military staff, was affected by any gas. So, for us, there was no gas attack and no gas depot, it was a false flag play just to justify the attack on the Shairat base. That’s what happened.
Question: And what about possible future provocations like that. What is your assessment of this possibility?
President Assad: So, nothing has changed regarding the United States. Their aim is to destabilise Syria, their aim is to change the government, to topple the government, and to bring their puppets instead, so they will do everything, for them the end justifies the means, no values, no morals at all, anything could happen.
Question: And is there a threat of using of chemical weapons by the terrorists? And if so, from where do they get it? From which countries?
President Assad: From Turkey. Directly from Turkey, and there was evidence regarding this, some of them have been shown on the internet a few years ago. It’s not something hidden.
Question: Let’s go to another point about the military situation. When will the Syrian Army start an operation to liberate Raqqa, and will the Kurdish units be involved, and will Russians be involved, and is there a possibility of cooperation with the Western coalition and Iraqi forces?
President Assad: Regarding fighting terrorism, we always announce that we are ready to cooperate with any country who is genuinely ready or wants or has the will to fight terrorism. We didn’t even define which countries; any country including the West, taking into consideration that we already know that the West supports the terrorists and it doesn’t have a will to fight them.
The relation between ISIS and al-Nusra, and the relation between ISIS and al-Nusra and Turkey, and of course Turkey means the United States, and the United States means France and the UK, and both mean Saudi Arabia, and so on.
So, this is one choir actually, and they have one army, one proxy army, which is different factions, mainly Al Qaeda, mainly al-Nusra and ISIS. So, that’s why our advancement toward Raqqa has been slowed down, because we changed the priority because of different fronts of the terrorists.
Question: I see. And regarding Turkey, you’ve mentioned, so in the north of Aleppo, in al-Bab, the Syrian Army is facing Turkey forces that have invaded Syria in breach of international law. Will the Syrian Army undertake any action to put an end to this Turkish intervention, and so when and how this could take place?
President Assad: When you defeat the terrorists, the Turkish army and any other army will be weak on the ground. Their real strength are their proxies, not their own army. But the priority now is to fight their proxies, because they are the strongest element on the ground.
Question: Do you think that there can be an improvement in the bilateral relations between Syria and the United States?
President Assad: We all know that the American officials say something and do something different, they’re never committed to their promises or their words. So, that’s what have been proven recently after the attack on Shairat; they say something and they do something different. So, in politics you don’t say “I wouldn’t do this.” Whenever there is a window of hope that this state or this regime can change its attitude toward respecting your sovereignty, toward more preventing of any blood-letting in your country, you have to cooperate.
This escalation is the real expression of the reality of the American regime that’s been there for decades, it’s not new for the United States to do such a thing. I’m not talking only about Syria. When they change their behaviour, we are ready, we don’t have a problem.
Question: Okay, and how do you assess the emerging coalition between the United States and Kurdish units? Have you taken steps to prevent the establishment of self-ruling region in the north of the country?
President Assad: It’s better to wait to discuss the next constitution between the different Syrian shades of our spectrum, let’s say, and this is where we can tell how’s it going to be there. Our impression today is that the majority, the vast majority of Syrians, never believe in self-governance or confederation or anything. In this time, it’s being used as an excuse because there’s no government in that area. They say ‘we are governing ourselves because there is no government’.
Question: And what is the most contentious issue, to the constitution?
President Assad: Being secular. Most of the factions that apparently joined the negotiations in Astana and part of them in Geneva, they don’t accept a secular state, they want it a religious state, Islamic state.
Question: The threats from the north, from the Iraqi part of the borders, from Jordan, and the military missile attack from US ships: in this situation, are you going to ask Russia for more help to enhance the Russian assistance, including probably on the ground?
President Assad: Everybody knows that since that support started in 2015, the balance has changed, and we could recapture Palmyra and Aleppo and many other areas, and we could defend Hama recently; it was a very huge and well-organised attack, but we could repel it.
So, that support was very efficient, and of course, we shouldn’t forget the efficient support of the Iranians on the ground; they did not send troops, but with their officers, with their advisors, they played a very important role. So, I don’t think now there is a need for ground troops.
Question: Regarding the future of the political settlement, how do you see it, taking into account the low effectiveness of the Geneva talks? And can Astana replace Geneva as a main platform for negotiations?
President Assad: First of all, our estimation of Geneva is that it hasn’t started yet; till this moment, nothing, it’s a still-born, it’s dead. Astana is a very good idea, but do we have the requirement for these two means to produce? Till the moment, no, because part of this event which is Russia, Iran, and of course Syria, they are willing to achieve a peaceful solution.
They respect the sovereignty of Syria, they’re looking for the unity of Syria, they respect the Charter of the United Nations, the different Security Council resolutions, and so on. While if you look at the other party, the Western bloc with their allies in the region and their proxies, of course, they are in the other side. They are using these events only as a political umbrella for the terrorists, not for the political solution.
Of course, in Syria we sat with the terrorists, and how can we make those reconciliations if we don’t sit with them? So, I said let’s go and pave the way for your own political track, which is direct negotiations with the terrorists or militants in different areas, and tell them if you give up your armaments, I will give you amnesty and you go back to your normal life, live normally like any other citizen. So, yes, we are ready to sit with whoever could help us in stopping this blood-shedding in Syria, whoever, we don’t have any problem, we don’t have any taboo in that regard.