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president bashar al assad of syria thank you very much for talking to our today almost we're going to ask it's so you know many people were convinced a year ago that you wouldn't make it this far but yet again we're sitting in the newly renovated presidential palace and recording this interview who exactly is your enemy at this point by any means terrorism the instability in syria this was our enemy it's not about people it's not about both. it's not about me three leaving it's supposed to contribute safe or not so disobey me but we've been fighting us here you know i've been here for the last two days and i had a chance to talk to a couple of people from damascus some of them say that whether you stay or go doesn't really matter at this point anymore what do you say to that i think for the president to stay or to leave is a popular issue he's not personally sure and the only way to define this is.

really through the bottle boxes so you thought about what we hear it's about what we came to get through that box and that box with any president to stay or leave very simply i think what they meant was that at this point you are not the target anymore syria is it wasn't a target there wasn't a problem anyway and you know that with all its created any means it was communism that it became. became for scene for different reasons and now they want to create a new enemy so the problem is the president so he has to be first of all you have to focus on the real problem with our time listening to what they say but do you personally believe still believe that you are the only man who can hold syria together and the only men and what the world calls a civil war. we have to look at it from the first aspect is the. situation and i

have no authority through the constitution according to this to this or for it into the constitution i have to be able to solve the problem but if if we mean it that you will i don't have any other syrian who can be president no anything could be president we have many syrians was eligible to be in that. position you cannot. link the whole country only to one person always but you are fighting for your country do you believe that you are the man who can put an end to the conflict and restore peace i have to be the man who came to that and i hope so but it's not about the power of the president it's about the whole society i have to be precise about this president cannot do anything without institutions and without the support of the people so the fight now is not presidents fight the syrians fight every syrian is involved in defending his country no it is a lot of civilians are dying as well in the fighting so if you were to win this war

how would you reconcile with your people after everything that has happened and just be. again the problem is not between me and the people i don't have a problem the people could be united states is against me the west is against me many other countries including turkey which is not of course against me if the people of the syrian people are against me how can it be so nothing against you here nothing against you if the whole would lift a big part of the world including your people against you are you surprised that you are just a human being so this is not political so it's not about the call siding with the people it is papa bob the confusion between the syrian and the syrian don't have civil it's above their reason and support coming from abroad to support terrorist to destabilize syria and this is a war you still believe it's a civil war because i know that there's a lot of except for terrorism which everyone believes takes place in syria there's also. a lot of confession based strife for example we all heard about the mother

who has two sons one son is fighting for the government forces another one is fighting for the rebel forces how is this not a civil war you have division but division doesn't mean civil war is completely different civil war should be based on if medical problem or sectarian problem sometimes you may have security and with medical pension and pension doesn't mean problem so if you have division in the same family or in a bigger tribe or to avoid the same city of new rule the scope really different and that's more than you can should expect but when i asked about reconciling with your people this is what i meant and heard you say on many different occasions that the only thing you care about is what syrian people think of you and what you are people feel towards you and what you should be president or not aren't you afraid that at the end of the day because there's been so much damage done to the country that they won't care about the truth but they will just blame you. because this is

a political question because what the people think is the right thing so what they think we have to to ask them but i don't have this information right now so again i'm not afraid about i'm not afraid of what would be think about me comparable my country we have to be focused on that ok you know for years there has been so many stories about almighty syrian army how many cotton syrian secret services but then we see that you know the government forces aren't able to crush the enemy like. people expected it would and we see terrorist attacks take place in the middle of damascus almost every day. where the myths about the syrian army and about the strong syrian secret services usually when you have for me when you have secret intel you know the things should focus on external enemy not internal i mean if you have in the internet maybe like terrorism. you have society that could help you at least not to. provide terrorists with incubate in that case it's

a new kind we have a new kind of war terrorism through proxies either syrians living in syria or foreigner fighters coming from abroad so it's a new style before this is first so you have to adapt with this new started it takes time to stop these games and to see this is easier as you see as a normal or let's say traditional or regular war no it's much more difficult thickened the support that they've been had that's been offered to go through with every aspect or rents money political is unprecedented so you have to expect that it's going to be tough or in a difficult war you don't see it you don't expect a small country go through you have to defeat all those countries but been fighting us through proxies just in days or weeks here because when you look at it i mean on one hand you have one leader with the army he tells his army go straight go left go

right and the army will be on the other hand you have fractions of terrorists who have no one to unify them no unified strategy just like you so how does that really happen when it comes to fighting each other it's not aspect of the problem but those thirty with fighting from within the cities in the cities you have civilians when you when you fight these kind of terrorists you have to be aware that. you don't you should do the minimal minimum damage to the infrastructure and minimal damage to civilians because you have civilians and you have to fight you cannot leave there is just killing and destroying so this is the difficulty in these kinds of for. the infrastructure military infrastructure economy suffering it's almost as if like syria is going to fall into decay very soon and it time is against you in your opinion how much time do you need to crush the enemy you cannot answer that question because no one claimed the answer about when to do to end the

war unless we have the answer when they're going to stop smuggling. foreign fighters from different part of this world special to the middle east and the word and we're going to stop. sending armaments to those terrorists if they stop this is working i can answer your continuing leaks you can finish everything is public problem but as long as we have continuous supply going in and all moments and everything else and logistics is going to be. also when you think about it you have four thousand kilometers of loosely controlled borders or you have your enemy that can at any time cross over jordan or turkey to rearm get medical care and come back to fight you exactly exactly where no country in the world came feel the border from them to you with this world which is not correct even the united states cannot see this border with mexico for example maybe the same for russia which is

to become free so not completely to the border you can only have better situation on the border when you have good relations with your neighbors something that we don't have at least thirteen of turkey's support more than any other country the smuggling of room interest can i ask you something i've been in turkey recently and people there are actually very worried that war will happen between syria and turkey do you think a war with turkey is a realistic scenario rationally no i don't think that's god for for two reasons the war needs public support and the majority of the turkish people don't need this war so i don't think any russian. official would think about. going against the will of the public in his country the same for the syrian people so it's not the conflict or the difference is not between the syrian people and the turkish people despite the government and the official green between of children deal because all the

politics so i don't see any war between syria and turkey in the horizon when is the last. spoke to f the gun and how did the target and. may two thousand and eleven after he won the elections so you just congratulated him you just that was the last time because the last who is shelling turkey the government forces or the rebels in order to help you to find the answer you need to joint committee between the two armies in order to know. who calls on the borders you have a lot of terrorists who have. mortars so they can do the same or you have to go investigate the bomb itself the police and so on and that didn't happen we asked the turks or the turkish government to have this committee refused so you cannot have the answer but when you have these terrorists on your border you don't exclude . them from doing so because the syrian army doesn't have any order to kill the

turkish learn because you don't we don't find any interest in this and we don't have any immediately with the turkish people we consider them as a brother so why to do it a list that happens by mistake you need the investigation so far we don't have the answer because you accept that this may be mistakenly from the government for things that could happen the spots ability in every war you have and think you know inning or forgot to build against and we always talk about friendly fire if you can kill your soldiers so that in every war that could happen but we cannot say yes tom something why has turkey that you call their friends a nation become a foothold for the opposition. not the not turkey only government. only just a bit with not the turkish people talking to people in news good relation with the syrian people this is a guy and i think he believes that if muslim brotherhood take over in the region

and especially in syria he can go to his political future this is one reason the other reason. person. you think that you've been useful for the autumn and you can control the region as it was during those many. different rates. which is. slimy but not god money can buy you not to be holy for but in his heart you think that he's had you for these are the main reasons for him to change or to shift his policy from zero frames authority problems to zero friends but it's not just the west that opposes you at this point you have so many enemies in the arab world and that's to say like two years ago when someone heard your name in the arab world they would straighten their ties and on the first occasion they betray you why do you have so many enemies in the arab world there not only is some of them the majority of the arab governments support syria in their heart but they don't.

do that explicitly like that under pressure by the west sometimes under pressure by the pay top dollar and dollar board who supports you from their world many countries support syria by the whole but the truth here that explicitly but first of all york. plays very active role in supporting syria to the crisis because its neighboring country and they understand that if you have warring inside syria you will have war in the neighboring countries including iraq. i think of a country. they have good position. mainly in those other countries and other countries. can't all of them but. they are they have a positive position but without taking actions. saudi arabia qatar why are they so adamant about you resigning and how would an unstable middle east fit their

agenda. i cannot go on their behalf they have to answer that question but i would i could see the problem between syria and many countries in the world all regional or in that with but we keep saying no when we thing but we have to say no but the problem and some country believe that they can control syria through all this or through money or petrodollars and this is impossible in syria so the problem then maybe they want to play a role we don't have problem they can play a role where they deserve or not they can play a role but not to play a role. they experience or interests. that is it about controlling syria or about exporting their vision of islam to syria. you cannot put it government policy sometimes sometimes you have institutions in certain. countries

sometimes you have personnel who try to promote this but they don't in all three of . policies so they didn't ask us to promote their. extremist attitude of their institutions but that happens in reality that happens whether through in direct support of their government or through the foundation for the institution of the person and so this is part of the problem but when you want to talk as a government you have to talk about the announced policy not policies like any other policy but it's about interests it's about playing a role but we cannot ignore what you mentioned. iran which is a very close ally also exposed to economic sanctions also facing a threat of military invasion if you were faced with an option cut ties with iran in exchange for peace in your country would you go for it there's no contradiction i don't help these contradicting option why because we had good relation with iran

since seventy nine till today and it's getting better every day but at the same time we are moving toward peace and we had peace process we had with negotiations urine wasn't a factor against peace so this is myth. information to try to promote in the west but if we if we need peace we don't have to have good relation with your own business relation is completely two different objects your unsupported syria. supported our cause or because of the occupied land and we have to support them in their calls. you learn a very important country in the region you food for looking if we are looking for stability we need good relation with iran you cannot talk about stability while you have bad religion with iran with filthy with your neighbors and so on this is it. do you have any information that the western intelligence are financing rebel fighters here in syria no so far what we know that they are offering the knowledge support of the terrorist through turkey sometimes in lebanon. mainly.

but we have the other intelligence not deal with in the region some of them are very active what i couldn't do with don't do this provision. you western intelligence what's the role of al-qaeda in syria at this point are they controlling any of the rebel coalition forces no i don't think looking to control the look to have their own military kingdom or the moderate in their language but mainly you know try to scare the people through explosion assassination suicide bombers something like this to push the people toward this position or to accept them as a reality so they go through both to but their final is to have this with the islamic emirate in syria where they can. promote their own ideology and the little book. from those who are fighting to you and those who are against you who would

you talk to. we talk to anyone who has genuine will to help syria with our time with anyone who wants to use our crisis for his own personal interest you know he's been many times not you but the government forces how many times been accused of war crimes against our own civilians do you accept that the gun forces have committed war crimes against their own civilians we are fighting terrorism. implementing our constitution. by protecting the syrian people is go back to what happened in russia more than a decade ago. you faced the terrorism into china and other places the people in theaters schools and so on and the army in russia protected the people would you call it. a crime you know you wouldn't few days ago misty internationally recognized the crime but if that was committed few days ago when they captured

soldiers and excluded them and human rights watch more than once about the crimes all those terrorist groups and it was described a few days ago as. a crime this is the first point the second point if you have committed a crime against its people this is devoid of closure because the syrian army is made up of syrian people if you want to commit a crime against your people the army would divide will disintegrate so you cannot have strongarm you fight on me while you are killing your people so the army cannot with a stand for twenty months in these difficult circumstances without having the embrace of the public in syria so how could you how could you have this embrace moment while you're killing your people this is a contradiction so this advance. what is the last time you spoke into a western leader. before the crisis it was before the crisis for. where there any

time at which they tried to give you conditions that if you left the coast of presidency then there will be peace in syria are no no would mean politically no but whether they propose that directly or indirectly it's a matter of sovereignty only the syrian people would talk about this who ever talk about peace in the media in a statement that killing directly has no meaning it has no we here in syria in syria so we know. but you know do you even have a choice because from what it seems from the outside even if you wanted to go. you wouldn't have anywhere to go if i were to go if you want to leave to syria. or to see that this is the only place where we can leave i'm not pop at all isn't being me by the wrist could do with twenty other countries and syrian army. maybe in syria and they have to leave the city and the incident do you think that at this point they could be talks or diplomacy or we've reached a stage where only the army can do nothing i always believe in diplomacy i always

believe in always believe even with people who doesn't understand who doesn't believe in indicted you have to keep trying whether you succeeded or not think of you all with have. success you have to look for this particular success before you look for the good before you achieve the complete success but you have to be realistic you don't think that only they can make you into something because those people who commit these acts there are two to two guys one of them doesn't believe in especially with the extremist. you have the old girls who have been convicted by the court years ago before the crisis and they're not sure that i mean the government because they're going to be detained if you had normal situation it's the other part of them the people who has been supplied by the outside and they're only could they can only be committed to the people or to the government to spend

the money and supply them with them and they don't have to or they don't have decision they don't own their own decision so you have to be realistic and you have the third part of the people whether you've. militants or politicians who can exhibit a that's why we've been in for months now even with militants in many of them give up their armaments and they went back to their normal lives. do you think a foreign invasion is imminent i think the price of this invasion if it's happening is going. to be more than the whole world came before because if you have a problem in syria and you got this last stronghold of secularism and stability in the region and coexistence it's it will have a domain or fate that affect the world from the atlantic to the pacific and you know the implication or but it goes on i don't think. it is going.

to go but you do so nobody can clear what's next. mr president do you blame yourself or anything. normally you have to find mistakes to do it with every different decision otherwise you're not a human what's your biggest mistake well i don't remember to be right now but we're always but always even before taking the decision to go to court to consider that part of it will be wrong but you cannot tell about your mythical sometimes especially during crisis you don't see what's right and wrong until you overcome the situation but your so it's not i wouldn't be objective to talk about mistakes because you're still in the middle of the war so you don't have regrets yet. not now as it were when whenever things are clear you can talk about your mistakes but you definitely have an effect because if today was fifteen so march two thousand and eleven that's when the protest started to escalate and grow what would you do

differently what i would do or do what i did exactly. exactly the same to start to ask the different parties to for to have dialogue and to stand against the terrorist group but i always thought if you didn't start as modest you could cover world umbrella was marcia's but within those marches you had militants who started tooting disobedience and the army at the same time maybe on the tactical level you . would have done something different but as president told not to go to the decision or structure you care for which is different present us how do you see yourself in ten years time. for my country i cannot see myself i can see my company in ten years time but i can see myself. in syria differently i have to be in syria itself hold the position i don't see myself or the president or not this by interest i could see myself and this country have come through their country more

prosperous country person bashar al assad of syria thank you for talking to r.t. thank you for coming through ok. on the song leisel. and i shoot despite. being a whole something only done fadia. you can use the truth and the most reliable of the twentieth century. legend. things.

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