Assad Frames Syrian Struggle as Him Against Western Colonizers
By HANIA MOURTADA
Published: April 17, 2013
BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Wednesday night described what he said was an insidious Western attempt to recolonize his country, and he appeared to reject any thought of compromise or negotiation with the insurgency seeking to topple him.
Multimedia
"The truth is, what is happening is a war," Mr. Assad said in an interview broadcast on Syrian national television. "It is not security problems. It is a war in every sense of the word. There are big powers, especially Western powers, who historically never accepted the idea of other nations having their independence. They want those nations to submit to them."
By the United Nations count, the two-year war has left more than 70,000 people dead, millions displaced and untold numbers traumatized by atrocities and fear.
The interview on the country's Al Ikhbariya channel — conducted on Syria's Independence Day, which celebrates the end of French occupation 67 years ago — suggested that Mr. Assad's views on the conflict had only hardened. The opposition and its allies have called those views delusional.
"We must ask ourselves, did the colonizer take our sovereignty with him when he left?" he said sarcastically, referring to the end of French rule.
Mr. Assad extolled what he called the strength of Syria's society, rejecting a widespread view that the struggle in his country has become a sectarian conflict pitting his Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, against an insurgency drawn largely from the Sunni majority. Not once in the interview did he use the term Sunni or Muslim or name any religious sects. He characterized his opponents as terrorists, mercenaries, hooligans and members of Al Qaeda.
"We have to bet on the awareness of the people, and the Syrian people proved over the past two years that they're aware," he said. "I can say, without exaggeration, that sectarianism is less pronounced in Syria now than at the beginning of this conflict."
At another point in the interview, Mr. Assad asserted: "We are not afraid of sectarianism, so there are no dividing lines. The communities are coexisting and mingling in the same villages, so there can be no division."
He stressed that rumors of Syria breaking up into sectarian statelets in the near future were nothing but "psychological warfare" propagated by his foes.
"They want to convince Syrians that they are no longer capable of living together," he said. "They're telling them you can't coexist as a people."
He accused foreign powers and the international news media of framing the conflict in simplistic terms. He said that the media portray the Syrian conflict as "a president holding on to his seat against a population who wants him gone, but that's not the case."
Mr. Assad also expressed growing irritation with Jordan, which has become a point of entry for foreign fighters and weapons, rejecting Jordanian denials of complicity with the insurgency.
"I hope they learn the lessons that the Iraqi authorities learned," he said. "Iraqi authorities know very well how important stability in Syria is. They learned that a fire in Syria will inevitably spread to the region."
Mr. Assad's answers were delivered without pausing or rephrasing during the interview, suggesting they had been rehearsed. Asked how it could be possible that so many of Syria's neighbors were wrong about him and that he was the only one who was right, Mr. Assad answered, "We mustn't blame those countries because they're not independent; the decision is made by foreign countries."
He ridiculed what Western powers have described as humanitarian intervention in Syria as a euphemism for occupation and colonialism. "We saw their humanitarian intervention in Iraq, in Libya, and now we see it in Syria," he said.
At the end of the interview, Mr. Assad said he remained confident that his side would prevail.
"If there wasn't optimism in Syria, we wouldn't have fought in the first place," he said. "But we get it from the people and I get it, personally, from meeting with citizens, especially the families of martyrs who offered their sons for this nation. They tell me they have lost a son but are willing to give a second one and a third one for this nation. This is nationalism without bounds."
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