Assad: \'we have terrorists who follow the ideology of al-Qaeda\' London – Tom Rollins Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called for a “full national mobilisation” to fight what he called “al-Qaeda terrorists” inside the country, in a televised speech from the House of Arts and Culture in Damascus on Sunday morning. The speech represents the President’s first public remarks since November.
\"We meet today and suffering is overwhelming Syrian land. There is no place for joy while security and stability are absent on the streets of our country,\" Assad said in a speech at the opera house in central Damascus. The President denied an uprising inside the country, dismissing Syria’s “fake Arab Spring.”
Addressing the assembly to wild applause, Assad called Syria’s rebels “murderous criminals” and foreign jihadi elements, calling on government forces to “protect” the country.
\"We have terrorists who follow the ideology of al-Qaeda,” the President claimed. “We brothers fight against these people. Most of them are not Syrian... We will teach them a lesson.”
He said the conflict was not one between the government and the opposition but between the \"nation and its enemies.\"
The Syrian President meanwhile expressed interest in a “political solution” to the country’s 22-month crisis, but his regime has “not found partners” yet, he said.
\"Just because we have not found a partner, it does not mean we are not interested in a political solution, but that we did not find a partner,” Assad claimed.
National reconciliation would precede a new government and a new constitution, according to the Syrian leader.
However, member of opposition group the Syrian National Council Louay Safi al-Jazeera dismissed Assad\'s national address as \"empty rhetoric\" on Al-Jazeera English. \"He has shown that he is a dictator that we cannot negotiate with. I think he has no desire to relinquish power, he wants to crush the opposition,\" Safi claimed.
President Assad’s last public remarks came in November when he told Russian broadcaster RT he would “live and die in Syria.” Before that, the Syrian leader last appeared publicly in June, demanding his regime put down an alleged foreign insurgency.
Government and rebel forces continue to fight throughout Syria in a 22-month conflict which has claimed the lives of around 60,000 people since March 2011, according to the United Nations.
Source: AFP