PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad has said that everything in the world is changing regarding Syria on every level, both local, regional, and international.
In a statement given to the French media, Assad said: ‘Our mission, according to the constitution and according to the laws, is that we have to liberate every inch of Syrian land.’
News Line is pleased to publish excerpts from his interview:
Question: ‘Mr President, you have just met a French delegation of MPs. Do you think this visit will have an influence on the French position on Syria?’
President Assad: ‘This is a French question. We hope that any delegation that would come here is to see the truth about what is happening in Syria during the last years, since the beginning of the war six years ago. And the problem now, regarding France in particular, is that they don’t have an embassy, they don’t have any relation with Syria at all, so it’s like. . . we can say it’s a blind state.
‘How can you forge a policy towards a certain region if you can’t see, if you’re blind? You need to see. The importance of those delegations is that they represent the eyes of the states, but that depends on the state; do they want to see, or do they want to keep adopting the ostrich policy and don’t want to tell the truth, because now everything in the world is changing regarding Syria on every level, the local, the regional, and the international.
‘Until this moment, the French administration hasn’t changed its position, they still speak the old language which is disconnected from our reality. That’s why we hope that there’s someone in the state who wants to listen to these delegations, to the facts.
‘I’m not talking about my opinion, I’m talking about the reality in Syria. So, we have hope.’
Question: ‘Mr President, you said that Aleppo is a major victory for Syria, and a major turn in the crisis. What do you feel when you see the pictures of the hundreds of civilians that were killed in the bombings, and the devastation of the city?’
President Assad: ‘Of course, it’s very painful for us as Syrians to see any part of our country destroyed, or to see any bloodshed anywhere, this is self-evident, this is the emotional part, but for me as President or as an official, the question for the Syrian people is what I’m going to do. It’s not only about the feeling; the feeling is self-evident as I said. It’s how we’re going to rebuild our cities.’
Question: ‘But was the bombing of east Aleppo the only solution to retake the city, with the death of civilians, your fellow citizens?’
President Assad: ‘It depends on what kind of war you’re looking for. Are you looking for a quiet war, war without destruction? I haven’t heard, in history, of a good war, every war is bad. Why bad? Because every war is about destruction, every war is about killing, that’s why every war is bad. You cannot say “this is a good war” even if it’s for a good reason, to defend your country, for a noble reason, but it’s bad.
‘That’s why it’s not the solution, if you have any other solution. But the question is: how can you liberate the civilians in those areas from the terrorists? Is it better to leave them, to leave them under their supervision, under their oppression, under their fate defined by those terrorists by beheading, by killing, by everything but not having state?
‘Is that the role of the state, just to keep and watch? You have to liberate, and this is the price sometimes, but at the end, the people are liberated from the terrorists. That’s the question now; are they liberated or not? If yes, that’s what we have to do.’
Question: ‘Important talks will take place in Astana at the end of the month, including with a lot of Syrian parties, including some opposition groups, let’s say. Are you ready to negotiate directly with them, and are you ready to negotiate to help the peace to come back in Syria?’
President Assad: ‘Of course, we are ready, and we announced that our delegation to that conference is ready to go when they define. . . when they set the time of that conference. We are ready to negotiate everything. When you talk about negotiation regarding whether to end the conflict in Syria or talking about the future of Syria, anything, it’s fully open, there’s no limit for such negotiations.
‘But who’s going to be there from the other side? We don’t know yet. Is it going to be real Syrian opposition – and when I say “real” it means it has grassroots in Syria, not a Saudi one or a French one or a British one – it should be Syrian opposition to discuss Syrian issues. So, the viability or, let’s say, the success of that conference will depend on that point.’
Question: ‘Are you even ready to discuss your position as President? That has been contested.’
President Assad: ‘Yeah, but my position is related to the constitution, and the constitution is very clear about the mechanism in which you can bring in a president or get rid of a president. So, if they want to discuss this point, they have to discuss the constitution, and the constitution is not owned by the government or the president or by the opposition; it should be owned by the Syrian people, so you need a referendum for every constitution.
‘This is one of the points that could be discussed in that meeting, of course, but they cannot say “we need that president” or “we don’t need that president” because the president is related to the ballot box. If they don’t need him, let’s go to the ballot box. The Syrian people should produce a president, not part of the Syrian people.
Question: ‘And with this negotiation, what will be the fate of rebel fighters?’
President Assad: ‘From what we’ve been implementing during the last three years, because you want genuinely to have peace in Syria, the government offered amnesty for every militant who gives up his weapons, and it worked. And they still have the same option if they want to go back to normality and to go back to their normal life.
‘This is the maximum that you can offer, amnesty.’