In an interview given to Denmark's TV 2 channel, President al-Assad said that "moderate opposition" is a myth, and that reaching a political solution requires fighting terrorism, asserting that it's not acceptable that terrorists will take control of any part of Syria.
Following is the full text of the interview:
Question 1: So, Mr. President, let us begin with the current situation in Aleppo. The last few weeks, terrifying pictures have come out from Aleppo. I mean, we see the residents of the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo in a very dire situation. They seem exhausted, they seem terrified, the situation is very violent. What is the strategy behind launching such fierce attack from the Syrian and Russian armies at the moment?
President Assad: Actually, we didn't launch an attack, because the Syrian Army has continued its drive toward liberating every part of Syria including Aleppo or eastern Aleppo from the terrorists, but there was a ceasefire for one week in order to give the treaty, or the agreement, let's say, between the Russians and the Americans a way to be implemented, and it didn't work. When that week ended, we continued our drive as army to liberate eastern Aleppo from the terrorists. But actually, when you want to talk about the dire situation in eastern Aleppo, it's not because of the government; it's because of the terrorists. They've been in that area for years now, but we only heard about that "dire situation" in the media recently, in the Western media, because the situation of the terrorists is very bad. This is the only reason. While if you want to talk about the situation there, we never prevented any medical supply or food supply or any other thing from entering east Aleppo. There's no embargo, if that's what you mean, there's no embargo, and our role as a government is to encircle the terrorists in order to liberate every part of the city.
Comment: Further reading on the conflict between India and Pakistan: