Lebanese boys hold portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, during a demonstration against a possible military strike in Syria, in front of the United Nations headquarters, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday.

Lebanese boys hold portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, during a demonstration against a possible military strike in Syria, in front of the United Nations headquarters, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday. Photo: AP

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is disputing US allegations that he used chemical weapons against civilians, and said the Obama administration hasn't proved he did, according to CBS News correspondent Charlie Rose.

"He denied that he had anything to do with the attack, he denied that he knew, in fact, that there was a chemical attack," Rose said, describing on CBS's Face the Nation his interview with Assad in Damascus. "He said there's not evidence yet to make a conclusive judgment."

He was calm. He knew the situation he was in. 

Rose interviewed Assad as the US weighs a military strike against Syria as punishment for what the US says was an Assad-ordered August 21 chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 people. CBS said in a statement that excerpts from the interview will be broadcast tomorrow on its morning and evening news programs. The full interview will air on Rose's Public Broadcasting System broadcast Monday night.

"He was calm," Rose said of Assad. "He knew the situation he was in."

Rose said he asked Assad whether he thought there would be an attack and Assad told him "I don't know" and that Assad said there was no evidence that Syria had chemical weapons or that he had used them against his own people.

Rebels Cited

Rose said Assad told him that if Syria was in possession of chemical weapons, "they are in centralised control and no one else has access to them" and "suggested - as he has before - that perhaps the rebels had something to do with it." Assad didn't confirm or deny that Syria had such weapons, according to Rose's account of the interview.

Assad - and people in Damascus in general - are closely watching developments in Washington, where Congress returns this week to consider proposals authorising military action in Syria, Rose said.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, also on Face the Nation said the "most important" insight in Rose's account of the interview was that "Assad is clearly watching - closely watching - what is happening in Washington."

The White House effort to sell the public and Congress on its Syria plan included appearances by McDonough on all five of the US Sunday network talk shows. Obama will follow up with six television network interviews Monday before giving a prime-time televised address to the nation on September 10, the eve of the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and the attack last year on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Bloomberg