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West will pay for supporting “Al Qaeda” based Syrian rebels – Assad

Published time: April 18, 2013 00:34
Edited time: April 18, 2013 01:42

Syrian President Bashar Assad has cautioned in a TV interview that the West will pay a heavy price for allegedly helping Al Qaeda extremists in the country’s two-year uprising, adding that the government’s defeat is out of the question.

In the statement that was made on Wednesday to state channel Al Ikhbariya, Assad warned that “The West has paid heavily for funding Al-Qaeda in its early stages. Today it is doing the same in Syria, Libya and other places, and will pay a heavy price in the heart of Europe and the United States.”

He stressed that “from the first day, what is happening in Syria is dictated from abroad.”

Assad’s interview also comes within a week of jihadist extremists the Al Nusra Front swearing support to Al Qaeda’s commander Ayman al-Zawahiri, who’s idea it had been initially to turn Syria into an Islamic state.

The president continued to say that Syria was “facing a new war, a new method, with fighters, some of whom are Arabs, not Syrians,” and that the “army is not fighting a war to liberate Syrian territory, but a war on terror.”

While the president did say that progress was being made, he also pointed toward some “big powers, in particular the United States, that do not accept countries to be independent; they want them to be submissive.” Although the West has claimed on occasion not to be supporting Al Qaeda, Assad added that “everyone who carries weapons and attacks civilians is a terrorist, be they Al-Qaeda or not.”

The president went on to say that the defeat of his government would herald Syria’s downfall, and therefore he could and would not surrender. “The truth is there is a war and I repeat: no to surrender, no to submission”, he said.

“There is no option but victory. Otherwise it will be the end of Syria, and I don’t think that the Syrian people will accept such an option,” he added.

When questioned about his own future, he only said that the decision should be up to the people of Syria.

“The position (of president) has no value without popular backing. The people’s decision is what matters in the question of whether the president stays or goes”, which could mean the president’s intention to run for another term in next year’s elections.

http://rt.com/news/us-syria-assad-rebels-032/

April 18, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized