Recent Bashar al-Assad Interview With Portuguese State Television

Damascus, SANA-President Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to Portuguese State Television, RTP, following is the full text:Question 1: In a few days, it will be 4 years since the protests began in Syria against the government of Bashar al-Assad. From then on it has been a massacre. More than 220 thousand people have died, and there are 4 million displaced people. The arrival of Daesh (Islamic State) has made the situation more grim. For this reasons, it’s important to speak to a key figure in all this process. Today, he gives his first interview ever to a Portuguese media outlet. The Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad.How do you describe your country today, Mr. President?President Assad: Let me start by commenting on the number that you mentioned in your introduction, about the number of victims in Syria, which is 200,000, that’s been mentioned in the Western media recently, 220,000. That number is exaggerated. Always the West has exaggerated the numbers in Syria. Actually, it is not about whether they are hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands. Victims are victims, killing is killing, and terrorism is terrorism. Actually, it’s not about being a mere number represented on a graph, on a chart, like a spreadsheet. It’s about families that lost members, lost dear ones, lost relatives. It’s a human disaster we have in Syria.This crisis has affected every part of Syria, every Syrian citizen regardless of his affiliation or allegiance. It affected his livelihood, food, medicaments, medical care, basic requirements like education. Hundreds of hospitals were destroyed, thousands of schools were destroyed, tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of students don’t go to school. All that will create the fertile habitat and good incubator for terrorism and extremism to grow. But despite all this hardship, the Syrians are determined to continue fighting terrorism, defending their country, and defying hegemony.Question 2: Syria is not much of a country nowadays. The Syrian Army does not control all the borders, you have international coalition flying in your skies. On the grounds there are different entities. Is Syria as we have known it lost or finished?President Assad: You cannot talk about a finished Syria when the people are unified behind their government and their army and fighting terrorism and still have institutions working. We still have subsidies, we still pay salaries, we pay the salaries even in some areas under the control of the terrorists themselves. We still have the-Question 3: You send money to…?President Assad: Exactly, we send salaries. Because they are employees, and have their own salaries. We send vaccines to those areas for the children.

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summer wanderer said:

Syria is just another country on a long list of countries that the US government has needlessly and callously thrown into chaos. There is ZERO US national security interest at stake in Syria's civil war, yet, for some reason, the US government has come down on the side of the rebels, who are an amorphous conglomeration of AQ allies, subsidiaries and affiliates. US foreign policy is one humanitarian disaster after another.

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summer wanderer said:

Syria is just another country on a long list of countries that the US government has needlessly and callously thrown into chaos. There is ZERO US national security interest at stake in Syria's civil war, yet, for some reason, the US government has come down on the side of the rebels, who are an amorphous conglomeration of AQ allies, subsidiaries and affiliates. US foreign policy is one humanitarian disaster after another.

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CJ 2.0 said:

??? This is the americans' fault???

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MadLib said:

Yes, I'm positive that the few Kalashnikovs and instruction manuals that the US selectively and reluctantly provided the rebels were key to destabilizing Syria. :roll:

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TheDemSocialist said:

Read more @: Recent Bashar al-Assad Interview With Portuguese State Television[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]

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summer wanderer said:

You actually believe that's all they've done, is hand out a "few" rifles and instruction manuals?

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Wow. Did you also believe that Saddam Hussein was working with AQ?

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