by Stephen Lendman

Syria is proudly independent. Assad affirmed it forthrightly. Intends maintaining it. Refusing US-controlled puppet state status.

Unlike other regional governments. Ones in other parts of the world. Sacrificing their sovereign independence.

Betraying their people. Mocking legitimate governance. For special benefits they derive.

In an interview with Paris Match magazine, Assad was asked if he feels responsible for over three and a half years of war.

Since its early days, "we have been facing terrorism," he said. "It is true that there were demonstrations, but they were not large in number."

"In such a case, there is no choice but to defend your people against terrorists. There's no other choice."

"We cannot say that we regret fighting terrorism since the early days of this crisis. However, this doesn't mean that there weren't mistakes made in practice."

"There are always mistakes. Let’s be honest: had Qatar not paid money to those terrorists at that time, and had Turkey not supported them logistically, and had not the West supported them politically, things would have been different."

"If we in Syria had problems and mistakes before the crisis, which is normal, this doesn't necessarily mean that the events had internal causes."

Asked about using excessive force, he said:

"When a terrorist attacks you with weapons, how do you defend yourself and your people, with dialogue?!"

"The army uses weapons when the other side uses them. For us in Syria, it is impossible to have our objective as shelling civilians."

"There's no reason to shell civilians. If we are killing civilians, in other words killing our people, fighting terrorists at the same time, and fighting the states which stand against us and which support terrorists, like the Gulf countries, Turkey, and the West, how could we stand for four years?"

If we haven't been defending the people, we wouldn't have been able to stand all this pressure. Consequently, saying that we are shelling civilians doesn’t make any sense."

Asked about satellite images and UN claimed number of deaths, he responded:

"First of all, you need to verify the figures provided by the United Nations. What are the sources of these figures?"

"The figures being circulated in the world, particularly in the media, are exaggerated and inaccurate."

"Second, images of destruction are not only obtained through satellite images, they are there actually on the ground, and they are accurate."

"When terrorists enter a certain region and occupy it, the army has to liberate it, and there is a battle. So, naturally, there is destruction."

"But in most cases, when terrorists enter a certain area, civilians flee from it. In fact, the largest number of victims in Syria is among the supporters of the state, not the other way round; and a large number of those were killed in terrorist attacks."

"Of course, when you have war and terrorism innocent people die. This happens everywhere in the world. But it is impossible for a state to target civilians."

Asked about millions of Syrian refugees, he said:

"Those who left Syria are generally people who left because of terrorism. There are those who support terrorism, and there are those who support the state but left because of the security situation."

"There is also a significant number of those who do not support any side."

How will you win the war, he was asked?

"(W)e are fighting states, not only gangs," he said. "Billions of dollars are spent on those gangs."

"They receive arms from different countries, including Turkey. So, it is not an easy war from a military perspective."

"Nevertheless, the Syrian Army is winning in many places. On the other hand, no one can say how this war will end or when."

"But the major war for them in the beginning was how to win the hearts of the Syrians; and they have lost this war."

"The communities which embraced terrorists have become very small, and that is the reason why the army is winning. So, we have to look at this war militarily, socially, and politically."

Much Syrian terrorism is in militant hands, said his interviewer. Assad responded, saying:

"The Syrian Army doesn’t have a presence everywhere, and it’s impossible for it to be everywhere."

"Consequently, in any place that the Syrian Army doesn’t have a presence, terrorists cross the borders and enter that region."

"But the Syrian Army has been able to regain control over any region it decided to enter."

"This is not a war between two armies where you can say that they took a certain part and we took another part. The war now is not like that."

"We are talking about terrorist groups which suddenly infiltrate a city or a village. That's why it's going to be a long and difficult war."

Asked if his departure could end war, he said:

"The president of any state in the world takes office through constitutional measures and leaves office through constitutional measures as well."

"No president can be installed or deposed through chaos. The tangible evidence for this is the outcome of the French policy when they attacked Gaddafi. What was the result?"

"Chaos ensued after Gaddafi’s departure. So, was his departure the solution? Have things improved, and has Libya become a democracy?"

"The state is like a ship; and when there is a storm, the captain doesn’t run away and leave his ship to sink. If passengers on that ship decided to leave, the captain should be the last one to leave, not the first."

Asked if he feared for his life, he responded:

"A captain doesn't think of life and death, he thinks of saving his ship. If the ship sinks, everybody will die, so we would rather save the country."

"But I want to stress an important point here. Remaining president had never been my objective, before, during, or after the crisis."

"But we as Syrians will never accept that Syria become a western puppet state. This is one of our most important objectives and principles."

Asked about Islamic State terrorists, he said:

"In Syria we have a state, not a regime. Let's agree on the terms first."

"Second, assuming that what you are saying is true, that we supported ISIS, this means that we have asked this organization to attack us, attack military airports, kill hundreds of soldiers, and occupy cities and villages."

Where is the logic in that? What do we gain from it? Dividing and weakening the opposition, as you are saying?"

"We do not need to undermine those elements of the opposition. The West itself is saying that it was a fake opposition."

"This is what Obama himself said. So, this supposition is wrong, but what is the truth? The truth is that ISIS was created in Iraq in 2006."

"It was the United States which occupied Iraq, not Syria. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was in American prisons, not in Syrian prisons. So, who created ISIS, Syria or the United States?"

What about internal sleeper Jihadi cells, he was asked?

"Terrorism is an ideology, not an organization or a structure; and ideology doesn't acknowledge any borders," he said.

"20 years ago, terrorism used to be exported from our region, particularly from Gulf countries, like Saudi Arabia."

"Now, it is coming to our region from Europe, especially from France. The largest percentage of the European terrorists coming to Syria are French; and you had a number of incidents in France."

"There was also an attack in Belgium against a Jewish museum. So, terrorism in Europe is no longer asleep, it is being awakened."

Asked about Washington's intervention as a tactical ally violating Syrian sovereignty, he said:

"First, you said that it is tactical, and this is an important point. You know that tactics without a strategy do not produce results, so it will not defeat terrorism."

"It is an illegal intervention, first because it is not authorized by a Security Council resolution, and second because it did not respect the sovereignty of a state, Syria, in this case."

"So, it is an illegal intervention, and consequently constitutes a violation of sovereignty."

Asked about coordinating air strikes with America, he said:

"There is no direct coordination. We attack terrorism everywhere, regardless of what the United States, or the alliance it leads, is doing."

"You might find it strange that the number of daily Syrian air strikes against terrorists is larger than that launched by the alliance."

"There's no coordination; and at the same time you need to realize that the alliance’s airstrikes are merely cosmetic."

Asked about US airstrikes helping Syria, he responded:

"Don’t you see that this question contradicts the earlier question, in which you said that we support ISIS? This means that we are ISIS's enemies."

Asked more about whether US airstrikes help an Hagel's sacking, he said:

"Terrorism cannot be destroyed from the air, and you cannot achieve results on the ground without land forces who know the geographical details of the regions and move in tandem with the airstrikes."

"That's why, and after two months of the alliance's airstrikes, there are no tangible results on the ground in that direction."

"And that's why saying that the alliance's airstrikes are helping us is not true. Had these airstrikes been serious and effective, I would have said that they would be certainly useful to us."

"But we are the ones fighting the battles against ISIS on the ground, and we haven't felt any change, particularly that Turkey is still extending direct support to ISIS in those regions."

Asked about going from French ally to outcast, he said:

"The good relationship which extended from 2008 to 2011 was not based on a French initiative."

"It had two sides: the first was an American effort to make the French government influence the Syrian role, particularly in relation to Iran."

"The second side was a result of Qatar urging France to improve relations with Syria. So, the good relations with France had American and Qatari motives and were not the product of an independent will."

"Today, there is no difference since both administrations, I mean those of Sarkozy and Hollande, are not independent."

Asked if can revive relations with Hollande, he said:

"The issue has nothing to do with personal relations, for I don’t know him to start with."

"It has to do with relations between states and institutions, relations based on the interests of two nations."

"When there is any French official, or French government, seeking mutual interests, we will deal with them."

"But this administration is acting equally against the interests of our people and against the interests of the French people."

"As for him considering me a personal enemy, I don’t see the logic of that. I’m not competing with Hollande for anything."

"I believe that Hollande’s competitor in France now is ISIS, because his popularity is close to that of ISIS."

He categorically says all Syrian chemical weapons were destroyed. None remain. "(O)ur decision was final."

Asked about John Kerry accusing him of using chorine, he responded:

"You can find chlorine in any house in Syria. Everyone has chlorine, and any group can use it."

"But we haven’t used it because we have traditional weapons which are more effective than chlorine, and we do not need to use it."

"We are fighting terrorists, and using traditional weapons without concealing that or being shy about it. So, we don’t need chlorine."

"These accusations do not surprise us; for when did the Americans say anything true about the crisis in Syria?"

Asked if he used chemical weapons earlier, he said:

"We haven’t used this kind of weapons; and had we used it anywhere, tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people would have died."

"It’s impossible for these weapons to kill, as it was claimed last year, only one hundred people or two hundred people, particularly in areas where hundreds of thousands, and maybe millions, of Syrians live."

He called it "painful to see the country which used to be one of the top five countries in the world in terms of security become a safe haven for terrorists."

"It is also painful for both my wife and I to see our belief that the West will help us in our bid for development and openness go in the opposite direction, and what is even worse, to see the West having allies among these medieval states in the Gulf, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar."

He ended asking why Western states launched aggression against Syria.

"Have we done anything to hurt them?" Evil people do evil things. Ordinary people suffer most.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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