Interview with Bashar al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, on November 14, 2015.
Transcript:
Transcript:
Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad received on Saturday a
French delegation, including a number of parliamentarians,
intellectuals, and media men, headed by member of the French National
Assembly Thierry Mariani.
President al-Assad affirmed that the terrorist attacks which targeted
Paris couldn’t be separated from those that took place in Beirut, and
what has been happening in Syria since 5 years and in other regions,
adding “terrorism is one field in the world and terrorist organizations
don’t recognize borders.”
“Wrong polices adopted by western states, particularly France,
towards events in the region, and its ignorance of the support of a
number of its allies to terrorists are reasons behind the expansion of
terrorism,” President al-Assad said, pointing out to the importance of
adopting new polices and taking active procedures to stop support for
terrorists logistically or politically in order to overcome terrorism.
For their part, members of the visiting delegation underlined that
the terrorist attacks in France yesterday proved that there is no state
which would be safe from terrorism, expressing belief in the importance
of unifying efforts of regional and international sides to combat it and
stop this phenomenon which poses threat to the peoples of the region
and world.
They showed sympathy with the suffering of the Syrian people who are
subjected to a fierce terrorist war, affirming their determination to
convey what they have really seen during their visit to Syria in a way
that could form a French public opinion, based on realities, not on
fabricated images.
In statements to the journalists following the meeting, President
al-Assad said, in response to a question about his reaction on what
happened in Paris on Friday “First of all, we offer our condolences to
the French families that lost dear members yesterday, and we are the
closest people to this situation to understand what happened yesterday
in France, because we have been suffering from this kind of terrorism
for the last five years in Syria.
“And what happened in France yesterday cannot be separated from what
happened in Beirut two days ago, because this is terrorism. That’s why you shouldn’t look at terrorism as separate arenas, like looking at
Syria’s arena, Yemen, Libya, France. Actually, it’s one arena all around
the world.”
Asked about where the Syrian intelligence services have any indication
or information that either the people who committed this act came from
Syria or were in contact with any group in Syria, the President said
“No, we don’t have any information about what happened, but it’s not
about the names, and who went and who didn’t. We warned about what’s
going to happen in Europe three years ago, and we said don’t mess with
the fault line in Syria. It’s going to be like an earthquake that will
reverberate around the world, and unfortunately the European officials
didn’t pay attention to what we said. They thought that we are
threatening, and they didn’t learn from what happened at the beginning
of this year, from Charlie Hebdo.”
He added “Just giving statements that you are against terrorism means
nothing. You have to go and fight terrorism, you have to pursue the
correct and right policies, that’s what they have to do.”
In his response to a question whether Syria is ready to fight with
France against terrorism if they ask and help the French intelligence
services, President Assad said “They don’t have to ask; they only have
to be serious. This is where we are ready to fight terrorism with them.”
“We are ready to fight terrorism with whoever wants to really fight
terrorism, and the French government is not serious yet,” he added.
In a message he was asked to send to the French President Francois
Hollande, President al-Assad said “Work for the sake and the interest of
your people. And the question that any Frenchman would ask today: did
the French policy during the last five years do any good to the French
people? Actually, no. So, the first thing I’ll ask is to work for the
interest of the French people, and if he wants to do that, he has to
change his policy.”
Asked about the condition for the Syrian government and the French
government to work together, or for the Syrian intelligence services to
work with the French intelligence services, President Assad said “You
cannot talk about intelligence cooperation without political
cooperation. You cannot talk about intelligence cooperation in order to
fight terrorism while at the same time your policies, the policies of
the same government, are going in the direction of supporting terrorism.
That’s what I meant by being serious.”
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