this could. resolve resistance. thanks. think. its. president bashar al assad of syria thank you very much for talking to r t today almost we're going to ask 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 new renovated presidential palace and recording this interview who exactly is your enemy at this point by any means terrorism instability in syria this with or any talk about people it's not about it's. all about who is not about me three leaving it's a pub contribute safe or not. 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 some 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 it's not personal and the only way to define this. place hopefully through the ballot box so it's not about what we hear it's about what we can get through but books and books with any. president to say only 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 the with all its created enemies it was the communism they did became but they became for bomber scene for different reasons and now they want to create a new enemy which i saw this is the problem with the president so he has to leave first of all you have to focus on the real problem not 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 to speak of the first aspect is the constitution and have no authority through the constitution according to this or throw it into the constitution have to be able to solve the problem but if if we mean it that you 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 in the hopes of but it's not about the power of the president it's about the whole society we have to be profitable this president cannot do anything without institutions and with the. support of the people so the fight now is not the president's 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 just be . again more precise the problem is not between me and the people i don't have a problem the people could not stay. the king has been the worst use against me

many countries including turkey which is not of course against me if the peoples of the syrian people are against me how can they be there nothing against you here nothing against you if the whole would live through 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 to call siding with the people if papa bob the confusion between the syrian and the syrian don't have civil war it's above their reason and support coming from abroad support terrorist to destabilize syria 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 else confession based strife for example we all heard about the mother who has two sons one son this 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 we have carrying on with physical pain and tension doesn't mean problem so if you have division in the same family or in a bigger tribe or to avoid the same city does that mean through this completely different and that's more you can you should expect that 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's here where people feel towards you and what you should be president or not are just great 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 were the people think is the right thing so what do you 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 about what they think about me.

comparable countries we have to be focused on but. 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 service is usually when you have or you have secret intel you know the things we should focus on external enemy not internal any even if you have in the internet maybe like terrorism. you have society that could help you at least not to provide terrorists with incomplete or in that case it's a new kind we have a new kind of war terrorism through proxies either syrians living in syria or for in fighters coming from abroad so it's

a new style before this is first so you have to adapt with this new study takes time to stop these and to see this is easier as you see as a normal or let's say a traditional 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 of once money political is unprecedented so you have to expect that it's going to be tough in a difficult war don't you don't expect a small country like syria to defeat all those countries but fighting us through proxies just in these 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 obeys on the other hand you have fractions of terrorists who have no one to unify them no unified strategy to fight you so how does that really happen when it comes. fighting each other is not aspect of the problem but both 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 of these kinds of for you know the infrastructure military infrastructure economy suffering it's almost as if like syria is going to fall into decay very soon and the time is against you in your opinion how much time do you need to crush the enemy you cannot so that's a question because no one claimed that he had the answer about when to do it 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 some

accord and we're going to stop. sending armaments to those terrorists if they stop this is working i can answer i can tell you in the weeks we can finish everything is public problem but as long as we have continuous supply in the main 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 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 that have become true so no country can see 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 the accused support

more than any other country in the smuggling of our room and 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 it 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 and it's going to be 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 is spoiled because we don't know for sure the green between officialdom deal because all the politics so i don't see any war between syria and turkey in the horizon when is the last. i misspoke to air 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 it was 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 goes 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 swat and that didn't happen we asked the turks or the turkish government to have this comically 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 meeting with the turkish people to 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 disposability in every war you have and think you know in your forgotten the against and we always talk about friendly fire if you can kill your soldiers but 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 a good relation with the syrian people this is a i think he believes that if muslim brotherhood take over in the region and especially in syria you can go to his political future this is one reason the other reason. person. leaving that he had been useful part of the autumn and he can control the region as it was during those many. different.

which is. islamic but not gotten him in by not to be fully for but in his heart you think that it's hard for me 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 they are not the enemy is some of them the majority of the arab governments support theory in their heart but they don't. do that explicitly under pressure by the west sometimes under pressure by the petaled petrodollar and all aboard who supports you from the arab world many countries support syria by the whole but the truth explicitly

but first of all york. it's 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. all of them but. they are they have 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 and so on their behalf they have to answer that question but i what i could say but the problem between syria and many countries in the

world all regional all in the with but we keep saying no when we think that 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 at the expense or interests. but is it about controlling syria or about exporting their vision of islam to syria. you cannot put it as a government policy sometimes sometimes we have institutions in certain. countries sometimes you have personnel who try to promote this but they don't think of the visual. policy so they didn't ask us to provide all the. extremists attitude of the institution but that happens in reality that happens whether

through in direct support of the government or through the foundation for the institution and 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 which both 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 conflicting options why because we had good relation with you don't since seventy nine to today and it's getting better every day but at the same time we are moving toward peace and we had peace. the process we had with negotiations urine wasn't a factor against peace so this is. information they try to promote in

the west but if we do if we need peace we don't have to have a good religion of your own business relation is completely two different projects you are supported syria. supported our cause or because of the occupied land and we have to support them in their calls the very simple 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 ilchi 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 support of the terrorists through turkey sometimes in lebanon. mainly. but we have the other intelligence trouble with in the region some of them are very active what i could not do with this provision of the western intelligence what's the role of

al-qaeda in syria at this point are they controlling any of the rebel coalition forces no they don't think looking to control their look to have your their own military kingdom or the moderates in their language but mainly you know try to scare the people through exposure in assassination so it goes something like this to push people towards this provision or to accept them as a reality so they go through both to but finally to have this with the islamic emirate in syria where they can. promote their own ideology and the right for bush . from those who are fighting to you and those who are against you who would you talk to. talk to anyone who has genuine will to help you with our time with anyone who wants to use our crisis for his own personal interest you know

you've 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 government 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 in chief and other places the people in theatres 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 that that was committed a few days ago when they captured soldiers and it's cute of them and human rights watch more than once about the crimes of those terrorists 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 it because the syrian army is made up of syrian people if you want to commit a crime against your people the army would defy it would disintegrate so you cannot have strongarm unified 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 the. 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 with the cleanup 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 this in the media in a statement that dealing directly has no meaning it has no weight 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 wanted to leave to syria. or to see that this is the only place where we can live i'm not pop it i was in bed by me by the waist coat with twenty other countries and syrian army. made in syria and i have to leave incident by 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 and i will be i 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 if you always 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 achieve something because those people who commit these acts you are to. one of them doesn't believe in the extremist. you have the locals who have been convicted by the court years ago for the crisis and their natural enemy the government because they are going to be detained if you had a normal situation it's the other part of them the people who is being supplied by the outside and they are only good they can only be committed to the people to the government who spend the money and supply them with all of them and they don't have a choice 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 he is. militants or

politicians who can exhibit that's why we've been in for months now even with militants and many of them give up their armaments and they went back to their normal life. do you think a foreign invasion is imminent i think the price of this invasion if it happened 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 put it on the list although i don't think. with him going. to god but if they do so nobody can peer what's next. mr president do you blame yourself for anything. normally you have to find mistakes you do it with every

different decision otherwise you're not a human what's your biggest mistake well i don't remember to be frank no but we were always but always even before taken 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 when everything is clear you can talk about your mistakes but you definitely have a thick skin or 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 what i did exactly. exactly to think 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 it because the world umbrella was marcia's but within those marches you had militants who started tooting the civilians in the army at the same time maybe on the tactical level you. i'd have done something different but as president to not think you could go to the decision or structure your cliff 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 it's not about the position i don't see myself or the president or not this help my 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 working.

on the song leisel. and i shoot despite. being a small. only saying go to. the one who can use the truth and the most bring the lie of. the twentieth century. legend. things.

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