Assad tells Argentine paper he won't go
- From: AAP
- May 19, 2013
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told an Argentinian newspaper that he will not step down. Source: AAP
SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad says he welcomes a US-Russian peace initiative to end Syria's civil war, but had no plans to resign, in an interview with an Argentine newspaper.
"To resign would be to flee," he told the Clarin on Saturday when asked if he would consider stepping aside as called for by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
"I don't know if Kerry or anyone else has received the power of the Syrian people to talk in their name about who should go and who should stay. That will be determined by the Syrian people in the 2014 presidential elections," Assad said.
Assad spoke to Clarin and the Argentine state news agency Telam in a lengthy interview in Damascus in which he also denied that his government has used chemical weapons against the civilian population.
His comments come amid a rare joint push by the United States and Russia to convene a peace conference in Geneva that would bring together members of the regime and the rebels fighting to oust Assad.
"We have received the Russian-US approach well and we hope that there will be an international conference to help Syrians overcome the crisis," Clarin quoted Assad as saying.
He added, however, that "we do not believe that many Western countries really want a solution in Syria. And we don't think that the forces that support the terrorists want a solution to the crisis.
"We must be clear," he said. "There is confusion in the world over a political solution and terrorism. They think that a political conference will stop terrorism on the ground. This is unrealistic."
Pressure for action on Syria has mounted with Western intelligence reports that the regime has used chemical weapons on at least two occasions.
"The accusations against Syria regarding the use of chemical weapons or my resignation change every day. And it is likely that this is used as a prelude to a war against our country," Assad said.
"They said we use chemical weapons against residential areas. If they were used in a city or a suburb with only 10 or 20 victims, would that be credible?"
Their use, he said, "would mean the death of thousands or tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Who could hide something like that?"
Meanwhile, gunmen abducted the elderly father of Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad on Saturday, apparently in reprisal for the arrest of one of their relatives, according to a government source and a watchdog.
"Today armed men abducted Mr Muqdad's father from his home in the village of Ghossom," in the southern province of Daraa, the government source said on condition of anonymity.
"They beat him up in front of his family then took him to Daraa city," said the source, adding that he is 84 years old.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction, which was first reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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