© AP Photo/ SANA
In September 2015, Russia started an aerial campaign in war-torn Syria authorized by the Syrian government to assist Damascus in the fight against extremists, most notably, Daesh terror group, which is outlawed in Russia and many other counties.
The move has been criticized by Washington, which heads an intentional coalition that also shells terrorists in Syria from air, but without either UN Security Council approval, or Damascus' consent.
"Of course we make the decisions. Russian military has been in Syria for six decades. Their policy rests on two things — morals and international law. Even if they have a point of view, they say: 'This is your country, you know more.' They never try to interfere because they don't want anything from us. They don't ask us to be a puppet president," Assad told The Sunday Times in an interview issued on Sunday.
The Syrian president noted that Russian involvement in the Syrian conflict was explained by the Russian wish to prevent terrorists' victory in the Arab republic.
"They know if Syria loses the war against terrorism, this terrorism will prevail in Europe, and that affects Russia and everyone in the world," Assad said. Political Solution in Syria Unrealistic Political solution to the Syrian conflict is unrealistic at the moment as the foreign countries that control militant groups are interfering in the conflict and are not making any proposals regarding peaceful resolution of the situation, Bashar Assad stated.
"If you ask me what the topics would be for a political solution, I don't know. No one has proposed anything ... To talk about a political solution while the other side is controlled by masters in Saudi, Turkey, UK, USA and France is not realistic. The core of the problem is those countries are interfering. If they stop, then the terrorists will be weak and leave or be defeated, and then we can sit as Syrians and talk about solutions."
He noted that many people who used to oppose his government were changing their position as they were tired of war.
"Many of those who used to oppose the Ba'ath Party, this government and this system are now supporting the government, not because they like the government, but they support peace because they are tired and have lost hope. Under the control of militants they have no judges, no local administration, no one collects garbage, no one takes care of you medically."
He added that the Syrian authorities were still sending medicines for children in the territories controlled by the Daesh terror group to show people that the government was still caring about them. Syria's civil war between government forces and a wide range of insurgents, including opposition groups and terrorists, such as Daesh and Jabhat Fatah al Sham, outlawed in Russia, has raged for some five years and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Comment: Daesh 'Started to Shrink' Only After Russia Launched Operation in Syria
The West is losing its positions in Syria as it cannot "explain to people what is going on," while Russia's involvement has significantly weakened Daesh terrorist group, Syrian President Bashar Assad said.
Assad said that Daesh used to smuggle oil in Iraq under US' satellites and drones, however, the US-led coalition failed to do anything to stop it. "In the past if I said anything, people would say the Syrian president is disconnected from reality. Now it's different. The West is becoming much weaker. They don't have a leg to stand on explaining to people what's going on ... ISIS [Daesh] was smuggling oil and using Iraqi oilfields under American satellites and drones to make money, and the West was not saying anything. Whereas here the Russians interfered and ISIS started to shrink in every sense of the word," Assad told The Sunday Times in an interview issued on Sunday.
Assad called the Syrian conflict a world war against his country.
"We call it a world war, but it's a world war against Syria, tens of countries against us, sending those terrorists money and logistics, whereas our army is only Syrian, so we struggled ... At the end we were fighting an unlimited reserve of terrorists coming to Syria and we struggled, so Russian firepower and Iranian support has compensated," he said.
The president noted that Western countries were waging an information campaign against him. "Demonisation has reached its peak. This is a dictator, this is killing his people, dropping barrel bombs ... there's nothing more they can say about me," Assad said. He also denied the accusations of the alleged use of chemical weapons. "We never used it. Chemical weapons is mass destruction and would have killed thousands in a few minutes or an hour. We never had such an incident," the Syrian president said.
On September 9, Russia and the United States reached an agreement for a peace process in Syria. A ceasefire stipulated by the deal entered into force on September 12, but while it was supposed to last at least seven days for the next steps to be taken toward the Syrian settlement, it soon disintegrated.
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