President al-Assad’s interview with Fox News (part 2)

President Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to Fox News:

Following is the second part of the interview conducted on Tuesday by Former U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Journalist Greg Palkot:
Fox News: There’s a last key element to this UN report, and while the UN inspectors did not lay blame, that is they did not place culpability for the attack, there are many experts interpreting this report, some that I’ve spoken to in the last 12 hours, they frankly say this attack looks firmly like an attack coming from your government, from the Syrian government. They point to a few things; they say it was a large amount of gas, Sarin gas, maybe as much as a ton. The rebels could not have had that. They said the type of rocket, an M-14 artillery at 300 millimetres never used by the rebels before, that they needed large vehicles to send these rockets up, the rebels don’t have that, and maybe most importantly they point to the trajectory of the rockets. They say they were able to trace the rockets back from the impact point to where they came from, and in two different occasions, this is according to the UN, they say that the start point was Qasyoun Mountain, the headquarters of the republican guards. What do you say to that?

President Assad: Everything you mentioned is part of the report? All these points are part of the report?

Fox News: These points are all part of the report. These are all facts.

President Assad: The report didn’t mention anything regarding the republican guards or things like this.

Fox News: They said they gave the azimuth tracking of the trajectory, and people have extrapolated from the azimuth track that is where it was coming from, north-western Damascus.

President Assad: First of all, the Sarin gas is called kitchen gas, do you know why? Because anyone can make Sarin in his house.

Fox News: They said it is very high quality. Higher quality than even used in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, your neighbour at the time.

President Assad: First of all, any rebel can make Sarin. Second, we know that all those rebels are supported by governments, so any government that would have such chemical material can hand it over to those.

Fox News: The experts say that they have tracked nothing like this, a ton of Sarin gas, it is launchers, it is rockets, it’s a whole fleet, which happens to be, from time to time, those kinds of armaments, those kinds of munitions, happen to be in your bases.

President Assad: This realistically cannot be possible. You cannot use the Sarin beside your troops, this is first. Second, you don’t use WMD while you are advancing, you’ve not been defeated, and you’re not retreating. The whole situation was in favour of the army. Third, we didn’t use it when we had bigger problems last year. When they talk about any troops or any unit in the Syrian army that used this kind of weapon, this is false for one reason because chemical weapons can only be used by specialized units. It cannot be used by any other units like infantry or similar traditional units. So, all what you mentioned is not realistic and not true. Definitely, so far as government, we have evidence that the terrorist groups have used Sarin gas and those evidences have been handed over to the Russians. The Russian satellites, since the beginning of these allegations at the 21st of August, they said that they have information through their satellites that the rocket was launched from another area. So, why to ignore this point of view? So, the whole story doesn’t even hold together. It’s not realistic. In one word, we didn’t use any chemical weapons in the Ghouta, because if you want to use it, you would harm your troops, you would have harmed tens of thousands of civilians living in Damascus.

Fox News: Just to conclude this portion, Mr. President, will you allow more investigation? Will you allow UN investigators to come in, maybe to further investigate this attack, as you say, other attacks? There’s something like 14 different attacks where accusations are being made on both sides and even a UN team to decide on the culpability, the blame for this attack. You will allow those UN teams to come in?

President Assad: We invited them to come to Syria first, in March, and we’ve been asking them to come back to Syria to continue their investigations because we have more places to be investigated. The United States is the one who made pressure on them to leave recently before they finish their missions. When we invited the delegation, we wanted this delegation to have full authority to investigate everything, not only the use of the Sarin gas or the chemical weapons, but to investigate everything about who did it and how, but the United States made pressure in order to keep it only about was it used or not. Why? Because, I think the United States administration thought that if they’re going to investigate who and how, they’re going to reach the conclusion that the rebels or the terrorists have used it, not vice versa.

Fox News: Thank you, Mr. President. Dennis?

Fox News: Thank you. Mr. President, one of the things that appear possible is that Syria’s place as a secular state is at risk. Would you agree with that?

President Assad: Of course, when we have this kind of extremism and terrorism and violence, that will render the whole society into a more closed society, more ideologically fanatic, and that’s what the extremists are doing.

Fox News: But what does it mean to have a secular state? I mean there are questions about whether or not your position is authoritarian, whether you believe in democratic values. What is the secular state mean to Syria?

President Assad: Secular state means to deal with its citizen regardless of their religion, sect and ethnicity, because Syria is a melting pot. We have tens of different cultures in Syria. If we don’t have a secular state that reflects this secular society, Syria will disintegrate. So, that’s what it means to have a secular society.

Fox News: One of the notions about this very serious conflict is that it’s a civil war. Would you agree with that characterization that you’re involved in a civil war?

President Assad: No, civil war should start from within the society. Civil war needs clear lines, geographical lines, social lines and sectarian lines, but we don’t have these lines in Syria. Civil war doesn’t mean to have 80 or 83 nationalities coming to fight within your countries supported by foreign countries. What we have is not a civil war; what we have is a war, but it’s a new kind of war.

Fox News: So, you’re blaming outside interests for the acceleration of war. Now, there’s just some statistics that have come out from IHS James. They’re a defence analyst group. They estimate the opposition as a hundred thousand, 30,000 of which are hard-line Islamists sympathetic to the 10,000 Al Qaeda-inspired Jihadists. Are any of these Syrians? Are they all outsiders? Where are they getting their money?

President Assad: First of all, no-one has these precise numbers. This is exaggeration, because most of the Jihadists, when they come to Syria, don’t come through countries or organizations. They just come by plane to neighbouring countries and they cross the border like any other one, and they just want to come to Syria for the Jihad with the other Jihadists. So nobody has these numbers. We know that we have tens of thousands of Jihadists, but we are on the ground, we live in this country. What I can tell you is 80, and some say 90 – it is difficult to be precise, you don’t have clear and precise data – 80 to 90% of the rebels or terrorists on the ground are Al Qaeda and their offshoots.

Fox News: These are the rebels? You’re not maintaining that all of your opponents are Jihadists, are you?

President Assad: No, not all of them. Of course we have many other different groups, but they are small, they are becoming a minority. At the very beginning, the Jihadists were the minority. In the end of 2012, and during this year they became the majority with the flow of tens of thousands from different countries.

Fox News: Where are they getting their money from? Can you tell us right now?

President Assad: Mainly from donations.

Fox News: But donations from where? Can you name nations that are donating?

President Assad: From everywhere in the Islamic world. They mainly come from individuals, not from countries. We don’t know if some countries support them directly, we don’t have any information. I have to be very precise, but mainly from donations from people who carry the same ideology in their minds.

Fox News: You mentioned before that some figures that are given are exaggeration. Can you tell us now how many Syrians have died in this conflict?

President Assad: We have tens of thousands of Syrians that have died, mainly because of the terrorist attacks, assassinations, and suicide bombers, the majority.

Fox News: And how many are your government’s soldiers?

President Assad: More than 15,000.

Fox News: And how many are insurgents or Jihadists?

President Assad: We don’t have numbers, because we cannot count them.

Fox News: But there are innocent people being killed in this. And the reports are that your government has bombed villages in which innocent people are killed. What about them, Mr. President?

President al-Assad: No wise government in the world would kill its own people

President Assad: The majority of the innocent people have been killed by the terrorists, not by the government. No wise government in the world would kill its own people. How can you withstand if you kill your own people for two years and a half, while the West is against you, many of the regional countries are against you, and your people are against you while you kill them? Is it possible? Is it realistic?!

Fox News: So you’re saying you’re not killing your own people, but your forces have launched attacks on villages where your own people have been killed.

President Assad: No, actually what you’re talking about is when the terrorists infiltrate residential areas in villages and sometimes in the suburbs of the cities, and within large cities, and the army has to go there to get rid of those terrorists. The army should defend the civilians, not the opposite. You cannot leave the terrorists free, killing the people, assassinating the people, beheading the people and eating their hearts. When we go to defend them, you say you are killing your own people! You don’t, but in every war, you have casualties. This is war. You don’t have clean war, you don’t have soft war, and you don’t have good war.

Fox News: The international community reports that Syrian rebel forces opposed to you are equally if not more worried now about Jihadist fighters than they were previously by your government. Now, in this new development, is there an opening for you to achieve a rapprochement with your Syrian opponents?

President Assad: Yeah, here we have to differentiate between what you call opposition and the terrorists. Opposition is a political term. When you oppose somebody, like in your country and any other country in the world, you have your own program, your own vision, you have your own grassroots, and you go and propose whatever you want regarding the political system or anything else, and you can change that system if you oppose the other party. Opposition doesn’t mean to carry weapons, kill innocent people, destroy school and infrastructure, and behead. What’s the relation between opposition and beheading?

Fox News: Well, let me then, as a follow-up, ask you about diplomacy. What diplomatic moves are you prepared to make as confidence-building measures towards peace in your country?

President Assad: Any diplomatic move without having stability and getting rid of the terrorists is going to be just an illusion. Any diplomatic move should start with stopping the flow of the terrorists, the logistical support of those terrorists, the armament support and the money support. Then, you have a full plan, the Syrians could sit on the table, discuss the future of Syria, the political system, the constitution and everything.

Fox News: Would that future include negotiations with the Syrian opposition?

President Assad: Exactly, that doesn’t mean negotiating with the terrorists.

Fox News: I understand. Now, but does it mean that you’re ready for, let’s say, a program of reconciliation with those who have opposed you? Are you ready for that?

President Assad: Of course, we announced it at the beginning of this year. We said we are ready to discuss with any political party inside and outside Syria.

Fox News: Let’s take this down the road into next year. Would you be prepared to offer amnesty to all the Syrians who opposed your government?

President Assad: They didn’t breach the law, so if they oppose the government, they can come to Syria without amnesty. Amnesty should only be offered to anyone who violates or breaches the Syrian law. If you oppose it, it is not a crime.

Fox News: Do you believe in amnesty as a path towards peace?

President Assad: That depends on to whom; if it’s to whom stained their hands with Syrian blood, it could be as part of a national reconciliation.

Fox News: Would that include reparations to the families of those who were killed?

President Assad: It’s not the President who should put all these details. I think the Syrian meeting of every faction or all the parties that will define all these details.

Fox News: What would you say, Mr. President, to the millions of Syrians who are now refugees, as you move towards the peace process? What would you do to say “please come home?”

President Assad: Of course we want them to come back to their villages, to their cities, to their houses, to their homes, we want them to. But we have to help them with getting rid of the terrorists, because the majority of those refugees left because of the terrorists, not because of the government. Actually, we have refugees within Syria that are being helped by the government.

Fox News: Let me ask you this, have you spoken to President Obama?

President Assad: Never.

Fox News: Have you ever spoken to him?

President Assad: No.

Fox News: Are you interested in speaking to our President?

President Assad: That depends on the content. (Laughing) It’s not a chat.

Fox News: If you want to send him a message right now, what would you say to him?

President Assad: Listen to your people; follow the common sense of your people. That’s enough.

Fox News: And Pope Francis instructed the international community to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution. Do you believe the Pope’s advice is valid, for your government as well as other countries?

President Assad: Of course, we invited every militant in Syria to give up armament, and offered amnesty to whoever laid down his armament and wants to go back to his normal life as a Syrian citizen. Of course we believe in that.

Fox News: Thank you, now before I give this back to my colleague, I want to ask you a question that’s been bothering me and perhaps other Americans. Not everyone who’s watching this interview today knows that you’re a doctor, you’re an MD. You’ve done this before you were President. As you know, doctors take an oath never to do harm to anyone. That’s a direct quote from the Hippocratic Oath. Does a doctor give that up when he takes political office?

President Assad: First of all, doctors take the right decision to protect the life of the patient, so you cannot say they don’t do harm physically because sometimes they have to extract the bad member that could kill the patient. You could extract an eye, a leg and so on, but you don’t say that he’s a bad doctor. It is still a humanitarian job whatever they do; the same for politicians but in a larger scale. A doctor deals with one patient while the politician should with the public, with millions or tens of millions and so on. So, the question is whether your decision should help the life of the Syrians or not in such a situation. Nobody likes the violence, we are against the violence. But what will you do when the terrorists attack your country and kill the people? Will you say that I’m against violence or you defend? You have an army, you have police, they have to do their job, this is the constitution, and this is the role of any government. What did you do in Los Angeles in the 90s when you had rebels? Didn’t you send your army? You did. So this is the mission of the government. The most important thing is, when you take the decision, whether it harms or not, it should help the majority of the people. It is better that you take the decision that could help everyone, but sometimes, in certain circumstances, in difficult circumstances, you cannot, so you have to take the less harmful decision.