![\"DSC_6738\"](\"http:\/\/sana.sy\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/DSC_67381-300x150.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nISIS and al-Nusra, they are offshoots of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and in Afghanistan \u2013 as Clinton said, and as everybody knows \u2013 they were formed in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets at that time with Saudi money and American supervision and instructions. So, this is very clear, this is reality. Now, their ideology is the Wahabi ideology, the Wahabi-Saudi ideology. Who supported them? The Saudi family supported the Wahabi institution publically and formally, and of course we have so many figures, Wahabi figures, who can send money to them. Logistically, all kinds of supports to ISIS, whether it\u2019s human resources, money, and selling their oil, and so on, passes through Turkey, in cooperation with the Saudis and Qataris, and of course with American and Western overlooking of what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
But without this logistical space, or let\u2019s say backyard, to ISIS, ISIS cannot survive, because it doesn\u2019t incubation in Syria, it doesn\u2019t have the incubator in Syria.<\/p>\n
Question 11:<\/strong> They don\u2019t?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> No, they don\u2019t. So far, they don\u2019t. They are like a foreign body in our country. But because of the fear, because of the oppression, because of the killing, they could take some areas. But actually, their force is coming from Turkey with the personal support of Erdogan and Davutoglu.<\/p>\nQuestion 12:<\/strong> Do you have lists of who are actually buying their oil, and do you understand how it\u2019s even, I mean, the financial transactions, being realized?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Mainly through Turkey, both money and oil selling, money coming through Qatar and Saudi Arabia. And of course, the Turkish government itself, and the oil goes from Syria to Turkey because anyway most of the oil fields are closer to Turkey and closer to Iraq. They cannot sell through Iraq, because the Iraqi government has been fighting ISIS, while the Turkish government has been supporting ISIS. So, this is the only lifeline to ISIS, through Turkey.<\/p>\nQuestion 13:<\/strong> But you see, I don\u2019t understand what happened. It seemed like Syria and Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, used to have good relationships before the crisis, so happened? It seems like all of a sudden, they just turned against Syria, or turned against you. How do you understand it?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Because the current President of Turkey, who was Prime Minister at that time, he\u2019s Muslim Brotherhood in his heart, so when he saw that the Muslim Brotherhood took over in Tunisia and later in Libya then in Egypt, he thought that he could revive the Ottoman empire in the Arab world, but not under the Ottoman name; under the Islamic name. So he thought that he could rule the world. The only obstacle was Syria. That\u2019s why, for him as an ideological person, he forgot about everything, every plan we put in order to have good relations, prosperity, and so on, and he put his ideology first. So, for him, the Muslim Brotherhood should take over in Syria and he will be the \u201cImam\u201d of the Muslim Brotherhood in this region.<\/p>\nQuestion 14:<\/strong> And how about Saudi Arabia?<\/p>\nSaudi Arabia is a mixture of two things: the Saudi family, and the Wahabi institution<\/span><\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Saudi Arabia is Wahabi anyway. Saudi Arabia never had, let\u2019s say, warm relations with Syria, so we cannot say that they were in a good position then they changed. It\u2019s different from Turkey, completely different. Saudi Arabia is a mixture of two things: the Saudi family, and the Wahabi institution, for more than 200 years now, before the recent Saudi family, even the first Saudi family.\u00a0 So, there\u2019s a link; the Saudi family will be committed towards what the Wahabi institution will ask for.<\/p>\nQuestion 15:<\/strong> So, even if as you say that the IS is not going to stay, Turkey is going to be here, and Saudi Arabia is going to be here. How can you reconcile with these two countries?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> For us, I mean as a politician, as a state, as a government, their main goal is to work for the sake of their people, so whatever is proposed to be good, we have to follow it. So, if those countries are ready to stop supporting terrorists, we don\u2019t have any problem. It\u2019s not about living in the pat; we look to the future. So, we have to work in order to reach that point. After that, the people, their interests, their feelings, will define what kind of relations we can have with those countries. But we cannot say that we\u2019re not going to have this relation. At the end we have people; it\u2019s not only about the government. In Turkey you have 70 millions or more than 70 millions, and many of them are against Erdogan, many of them they understand what is happening in Syria, and they understand that if there\u2019s fire in Syria, the fire will burn Turkey later.<\/p>\nQuestion 16:<\/strong> How about the Syrian people? Will they accept to move on with this country? After all, so many people have died in Syria and millions have been wounded.<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Emotions are very, how to say, I mean if you want to talk about the feelings of the people, you can talk about a kind of\u2026 like they are inflamed. But at the end, the people will define and they will for their interest, and they\u2019re going to be aware. Of course, you cannot say that every Syrian is against or every Syrian is with; people are different. But at the end, I think, they will forget about what happened when they can see the bright future.<\/p>\nQuestion 17:<\/strong> Mr. President, you mentioned several times \u2013 actually, many times in the past \u2013 that further political steps are required to solve the Syrian crisis, and we understand that this will have to necessitate a dialogue among all the Syrian factions, a dialogue that eventually or hopefully leads into a consensus regarding Syrian political future. But you are the leader of the country, and your supporters look up to you. So, do you have a master plan or a grand vision about the future of Syria? What sort of Syria would you like to see after the crisis? And what kind of role do you see yourself play in it?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> If you talk about after the crisis, we have to define what political system you want, that is the most important thing. You can discuss it now, but it\u2019s not related to the terrorism issue. The terrorism issue is related to maybe completely different factors; internal and external. If you want to talk about the future of Syria, it\u2019s mainly the political system; parliamentarian, presidential, semi-presidential, federal, confederal, and so on. But the most important thing, for us and for me, is that the constitution and the whole system and the country in general should be secular. Secular doesn\u2019t mean against religion. Secular means the freedom of religions. It\u2019s the system that can include every religion\u2019s followers, every sect, and every ethnicity under one umbrella, which is the Syrian umbrella. This is first. Second, I think the main concern is going to be the economy, the reconstruction, and this is going to be an important sector in rebuilding Syria.<\/p>\nQuestion 18:<\/strong> We\u2019re going to come back to the economic aspect later, but if there\u2019s going to be elections soon, do you see yourself participating as a candidate?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> That\u2019s my right, but it\u2019s too early to say \u201cyes, I\u2019m going to run\u201d or not. That depends on how my feeling is regarding the Syrian people. I mean, do they want me or not? I might accept it or not. So, you cannot talk about something that\u2019s going to happen maybe in the next few years. It\u2019s too early. Sometimes you can define it only a few months before that, but I wouldn\u2019t say no, I wouldn\u2019t run if I feel that.<\/p>\nQuestion 19:<\/strong> How was your recent trip to Moscow? And I assume that you and President Putin talked about the crisis in Syria. I mean, is there any specific plan that you\u2019re working on, or how long you and President Putin think that it will take before the war ends?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> You mean regarding the political aspect of the crisis? You know now Russia is leading the political activity regarding Syria in the world, and my visit was about two weeks or three weeks before the Vienna conference. That\u2019s why I had that visit; in order to see what the horizon is in the political field regarding this crisis, what could be done. Now, Vienna defined some of the headlines which is general terms of course. At the end, Vienna mentioned elections and new constitution and so on, but at the end it\u2019s about what the Syrians would agree upon, so there must be dialogue. That\u2019s why I said in Moscow \u201cwe are ready for Moscow 3\u201d because we need to have dialogue, whatever Vienna said or any other conference. At the end, \u00a0what the Syrians will say; with or against. So, that\u2019s what we\u2019re working on with the Russians; is to hold new dialogue meeting between the Syrians, maybe in Moscow, and if so, it\u2019s going to be called Moscow 3.<\/p>\nQuestion 20:<\/strong> Have you talked about the end of this crisis? I mean, was there a timeline that you have to take?<\/p>\nEvery Syrian wants to have security and safety<\/span><\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Yes, we had, and we announced it before that visit. The Russians said and we said that you cannot take any concrete political step before defeating terrorism, because this is the biggest obstacle, and this is the prime concern to every Syrian; every Syrian wants to have security and safety. How can you achieve anything in your life if you\u2019re not secure, politically or economically or in any other aspect? So, this is the priority. So, what we are doing in parallel beside fighting terrorism, we need to make the dialogue, but the concrete steps should follow at least a major defeat of the terrorists and the government takes control of a major area that has been captured by the terrorists. This is where you can take those steps, and the major step regarding the political, let\u2019s say, part of the crisis, is to discuss the constitution, because the constitution will define the system, and both will define the future of Syria. So, this is our aim. Later, if there\u2019s a dialogue, if the Syrians want any other procedure, like what you mentioned something related to the presidential elections, this is going to be part of the dialogue between the Syrians. I cannot say this is my plan or not my plan, because not everything is related to the president. We propose the major issue, then the rest will be the result of the dialogue between the Syrians.<\/p>\nQuestion 21:<\/strong> It seems like a quite secure thought. Is there any timetable, timeline?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> No, for one reason; because what is the timeline of defeating the terrorists? It\u2019s a war, no-one can define when because it\u2019s related not to only our advancement or to what they are going to do; it\u2019s related to the support that they are going to have from other countries, because many countries, in the West, in our region, they don\u2019t have any interest in any political solution. They only believe in supporting terrorists in order to topple the government and to have political collapse in Syria. So, they want it to drag on. But if you ask me, I mean if you don\u2019t have that support, in less than one year you can change the situation and you can defeat the terrorists and you can start this process. But if you want to talk about the process after defeating the terrorists, if you want to talk about after that, you can talk about a maximum of two years of implementing everything, because when you talk about dialogue, then you\u2019re going to talk about the constitution, you need to make referendum. Who\u2019s going to define? People will accept or don\u2019t accept? We don\u2019t know. Then, you may have another possibility. So, more than two years, you don\u2019t need. So, two years is enough. Let\u2019s say this is range that we\u2019re thinking about.<\/p>\nQuestion 22:<\/strong> When you were meeting President Putin, have you talked about the possibility to include the Americans or the operation system?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> The Americans? You mean in the military operations?<\/p>\nQuestion 23:<\/strong> Militarily.<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> No, that was before the beginning of the operation. That was when President Putin announced his will to have an international coalition against terrorism. This is why that we thought everybody should be included, even countries who I think we believe that they support terrorism; at least we give them the chance to shift their position. And as we know, most of those didn\u2019t want to participate, because they don\u2019t have the will to fight terrorism. So, we had this discussion with the Russians a few months before.<\/p>\nQuestion 24:<\/strong> You have visited China in 2004. At the end throughout all these years, especially the past five years, are you still a sort of communication channel with the Chinese government? And is there any message that you would like to deliver to China, to the Chinese people, at this stage?<\/p>\nThe relation with China hasn\u2019t deteriorated, and the communications didn\u2019t stop<\/span><\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> We recently had Syrian officials visiting China. Actually, the relation with China hasn\u2019t deteriorated, and the communications didn\u2019t stop. We still have embassy, and your ambassador is still active during the crisis, he never left. And the most important thing than these formal, let\u2019s say, accessories, if you want to call it, actually the Chinese positions. China took four vetoes for the Syrian crisis, supporting the government, supporting the Syrian people, and supporting the international law, and let\u2019s say the United Nations Charter. So, yes, the relation is very stable, let\u2019s say, for decades now. Indeed, it wasn\u2019t influenced by the crisis. But the most important thing to the Chinese people, now China is one of the greatest countries in this world, to be a great country doesn\u2019t mean to have a great military and great economy; you need to have great values, and that\u2019s what the Chinese have today. And when you talk about the Chinese government, Chinese politics, it normally reflects the values of the people, it\u2019s not separated. So, the more role you have in the world, the more influence, the more weight, the greater you are as a country, the more responsibility you have towards the rest of the world, all the world. You have to regain the balance of the globe, and you have to support the values and the United Nations Charter. You have to rectify the moral decay of the Western policies that we\u2019ve been paying the price of. So, we look toward what the Chinese people and the Chinese government will do for our world in the future, near future and after.<\/p>\n![\"DSC_6739\"](\"http:\/\/sana.sy\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/DSC_6739-300x150.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nQuestion 25:<\/strong> So, are you already working on the post-war reconstruction?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> We already started, and we issued some laws regarding this, and the first area near Damascus is ready, and they started actually building the infrastructure a month ago. So, we already started, and we are working on, we are trying to make contact now with businessmen, especially in friendly governments and friendly countries, let\u2019s say.<\/p>\nQuestion 26:<\/strong> How badly is the economy of Syria been damaged? Because you see the Syrian currency has devaluated by 70 or 80% in the past five years.<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Actually, very badly, you are talking hundreds of billions of dollars of damage. 10% of the schools have been destroyed, 30% of the public hospitals have been destroyed, or let\u2019s say, out of work. And infrastructure, \u00a0electricity. This is the bad aspect of every war. This is very bad. But at the same time, this is an opportunity where you can have prosperity after the war, because reconstruction is the most important sector in any economy, especially after the war.<\/p>\nQuestion 27:<\/strong> What are you to do with the damage to cultural heritage sites, and how much will it cost for this restoration project?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> As much as it is Syrian heritage, actually it\u2019s a global heritage, and you understand what I\u2019m talking about because you belong to a country that has one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and your neighboring countries like Afghanistan and so on suffer from the same cultural disaster. The same happened in Iraq after the American invasion. Now, that\u2019s what\u2019s happening in Syria. Some of those international heritage sites have been demolished; they cannot be restored. There\u2019s another part of the problem; that many of the monuments could be smuggled outside Syria in order to be sold internationally. But fortunately, I think all of them are documented, and they are registered in the UNESCO, so we are going to work with friendly countries and international organizations including the UNESCO in order to get back our heritage.<\/p>\nQuestion 28:<\/strong> So, you see Mr. President, this summer we have seen a heartbreaking photo about the dead body of a Syrian boy, a young boy found at a Greek beach. Have you seen that photo yourself? And what did you feel when you first saw it? And you see, now the refugee crisis is a big problem to a lot of European countries, and some say that the Syrian government is to be blamed on this. What do you think?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Actually, I saw that photo, but we saw so many other photos, so you cannot feel the whole crisis through one picture, because we live in this crisis, we live with the bloodletting by the terrorists on daily basis. So we feel the sadness on daily basis. But that photo was used as propaganda by the West, and unfortunately in a very horrible way, because there are two reasons why those refugees left Syria: part of them left because of the dire threats by the terrorists themselves, they left their areas \u2013 of course, some of them left to government areas, and some of them left outside Syria, and the other part left because of the Western embargo, not because only of the terrorism and its influence, because of the Western embargo that influenced everything; the education, the health sector more than any other thing, and the basics of the daily living. So the problem of the West when they use that photo as propaganda to show their compassion with the Syrian people, is that this West, as a double standard as always, they offer the Syrian people with one hand, let\u2019s say, a dish of food, and with the other hand a bomb. That\u2019s the reality, because they supported the terrorists, those people and this boy and other boys and other children suffered and died and are being killed because of the Western policies in this world, in this region, and mainly inside Syria.<\/p>\nQuestion 29:<\/strong> So, people say that what doesn\u2019t kill you makes you stronger. Now do you think you are a stronger man compared to five years ago?<\/p>\nI can only feel strong as a president or as an official when the Syrian people are strong<\/span><\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Personally, I can only feel strong as a president or as an official when the Syrian people are strong. It\u2019s not a matter of personal ability; it\u2019s more as national ability. When you talk about national ability, you should relate it to the Syrian people. We suffered a lot, we lost a lot, as Syrians, but at the same time, if you go around Syria, you see this determination. You are fighting terrorists coming from more than 100 countries around the world, including China of course, and most of Europe, and Russia, and other countries, and they are supported by the strongest countries in the world, including the United States, and by the richest countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In spite of that, they haven\u2019t been defeated. \u00a0So, I can say yes, the Syrian people are strong, and they are becoming stronger against the terrorism, yes.<\/p>\nQuestion 30:<\/strong> You have stayed in your position much longer than your enemies or opponents had anticipated. What made you believe that you could make it through, what made you believe that you could make it up until now, five years ago?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Because I believe in the Syrian people first, I believe that I\u2019m working for my country and for the Syrian people, not for myself. The West wanted to portray the situation as a problem regarding a president who wants to stay in power, he wants to stay on his chair, and he wants to kill the people because they want to get rid of him. That\u2019s not the reality. How can you stay when you have the opposition of not only the terrorists inside Syria, but also the strongest countries and the richest countries, and you stay for five years? It means you have the support of, at least, let\u2019s say, more than half of the Syrians. I wouldn\u2019t talk about the majority, but more than half of the Syrian people. Without that, how can you stay here? It\u2019s not a matter of a superman, it\u2019s the matter of a normal person, he has the support of the public opinion. The problem with the West is they didn\u2019t understand the Syrian people, they don\u2019t understand this region. That\u2019s why they miscalculated at the very beginning, they thought it was a matter of a few weeks or a few months, like what happened in Tunisia and in Egypt, and now because they failed, they want to blame somebody else, they look for a scapegoat, and they want to say it\u2019s me, it\u2019s some other reasons, and so on. But actually, they miscalculated, and I believed in the Syrian population.<\/p>\nQuestion 31:<\/strong> If we look back in the past five years, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve undergone some serious, huge pressure, is there anything that you would do differently if you had the chance?<\/p>\nWe never had any other position, we want to fight terrorism and defend our people<\/span><\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Actually, you can talk about strategies, and you can talk about tactics. Regarding strategy, it was based on two things: first of all, from the very first day, we were determined to fight terrorism. We never had any other position, we want to fight terrorism and defend our people. The second one, is to make dialogue, and from the very first day we opened the doors for any dialogue. Some opposition accepted that, and some others didn\u2019t. So, our methodology and our strategy, I wouldn\u2019t say they were wrong. I think we need to continue in opening the door for dialogue and fighting terrorism. So, we\u2019re never going to change that. Most of the things that you mentioned could be related to the tactics. Of course you change it, because every day you make mistakes, and what\u2019s correct today is going to be wrong tomorrow. For example, if you want to draw one example, we trust many in Syria that they are working for their country, then we discover that they are working for the terrorists, and some working for other states to implement the agenda of foreign countries, and so on. So, in the tactics you always commit mistakes.<\/p>\nQuestion 32:<\/strong> And if you had to choose, would you rather be a doctor in the first place or the president of Syria?<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Even when I was a doctor, I worked in the public sector, I didn\u2019t have my own clinic. So, being president is another public sector but it\u2019s on a larger scale. Actually, being in the public sector and helping more Syrian people is more important for me than choosing what the profession that I work in, but I don\u2019t think being president is a profession; it\u2019s a public service. So no, for me now I enjoy much more helping a larger part of the Syrian society, more than being a doctor in one sector.<\/p>\nQuestion 33<\/strong>: Thank you very much, President Assad. Thank you for your time.<\/p>\nPresident Assad:<\/strong> Thank you for coming to Syria.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Damascus, SANA, President Bashar al-Assad said that you cannot take any concrete political step before defeating terrorism, because this is the biggest obstacle, and this is the prime concern to every Syrian. President al-Assad added in an interview given to “PHOENIX” TV Channel that \u00a0…” from the very first day, we were determined to fight …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,429,22,106,51],"tags":[7912],"class_list":["post-62206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-local","category-presidency-of-arabic-syrian-republic","category-slide","category-syria-and-the-world","category-interviews","tag-president-al-assad-to-chinese-phoenix-tv-channel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"DSC_6738\"](\"http:\/\/sana.sy\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/DSC_67381.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n