In an interview which will air this evening on Sky News, excerpts from which were published on the channel’s website, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Syria “does not support any candidate” for the Lebanese presidential elections, and that it has not intervened to resolve the crisis in Lebanon.
Al-Assad discussed several topics during the interview, such as the spread of cocaine trafficking, the Hamas movement, the relationship with Turkey, and Syria’s position regarding the United States.
“Hamas’ stance towards us was a mixture of betrayal and hypocrisy,” he said.
Regarding the war in Syria, he said that it was inevitable: “We expected from the start a long-lasting war and resignation was not an option at all because it would have been considered like running away because of the war.”
Assad further confirmed that he would not meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan under his conditions, since the latter’s objective would be “to legitimize the presence of the Turkish occupation in Syria.” He added that “terrorism in Syria is a Turkish production.”
The Syrian President stressed that the countries that have created chaos in Syria bear the responsibility for drug trafficking in the country, considering that attempts are underway “to create a state of terror in Syria, as is produced with Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.”
On the economic level, Bashar al-Assad said during the interview that the image of the war prevents investors from taking an interest in the Syrian market.
Seemingly confident, the president also said, “We’ve managed to get past Caesar’s law in several ways and that’s not a major hurdle for us.” As a reminder, the Caesar law is an American law targeting companies or people supporting the Syrian regime.
