Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview in Damascus, Syria, August 9, 2023. Photo: Syrian Presidency Telegram page via AP.
The Syrian president says foreign interests are looking to push his country down the same path as Libya and Iraq
During a televised interview with Sky News on 9 August, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denounced attempts to recreate the “scenario of Libya and Iraq” in Syria by plunging the country into a “state of terror.”
“Scenarios are playing out [which aim] to create a state of terror in Syria, as what happened with Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein,” the Syrian president said.
Assad was referring to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and Washington’s illegal toppling of Saddam Hussein’s government, as well as the NATO war in Libya in 2011, which resulted in the killing of the country’s President Muammar al-Gaddafi and plunged the North African country – once known to have the highest human development index in the continent – into complete chaos.
Assad also commented on the 12-year-old US-led war against Syria, stressing that “stepping down was never an option … because it meant escaping from war [and the country itself].”
In response to a question about resuming negotiations with the Syrian opposition, Assad said: “The opposition that I recognize is the opposition manufactured locally, not the one manufactured externally,” referring to US and Turkish-backed militant groups and political organizations based outside of Syria.
The US and Turkiye are occupying large swathes of Syria while supporting extremist armed groups.
While Ankara and Damascus are involved in a stalled, Russian and Iranian-sponsored effort to reconcile ties, Turkiye has expressed no intention of withdrawing its forces from Syria or ending support for militant groups – the main Syrian condition for moving forward with the negotiations.
Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he would be willing to meet Assad, but not with the withdrawal of Turkiye’s troops from Syria as a condition.
In response, the Syrian president told Sky News: “Terrorism in Syria is a Turkish industry … Erdogan’s goal of sitting (with me) is to legitimize the presence of the Turkish occupation in Syria. A meeting with Erdogan will not take place under his conditions.”
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Assad also condemned US sanctions, despite affirming that his country has found ways to bypass them “in several ways,” adding that the sanctions are “not the biggest obstacle.” The president’s interview came one day after the expiry of the US sanctions-waiver issued following the devastating earthquake in February.
He stressed that the most significant threat facing Syria “is the destruction of the infrastructure by terrorists.”
Despite ISIS being mainly defeated in Syria, the group still operates in small pockets of the country’s desert regions and has conducted multiple suicide bombings and attacks in recent months.
US occupation forces in Syria have often been accused of harboring ISIS and other extremist factions in their base in the southeastern Al-Tanf region.
