© SANA / Reuters Syria's President Bashar al-Assad
Syria will not negotiate with terrorists to end the conflict on their terms, no matter how hard the West tries to present armed gangs as grassroots political opposition, the country's President Bashar Assad told Spanish News Agency EFE.
The problem, Assad says, lies with the fact that
large portion of armed fighters and terror gangs in Syria are foreign mercenaries, which the US and their allies in the Gulf region are craving to include in the negotiation process.
"Opposition is a political term, not a military term. So, talking about the concept is different from the practice, because so far, we've been seeing that some countries, including
Saudi Arabia, the United States, and some western countries wanted the terrorist groups to join these negotiations.
They want the Syrian government to negotiate with the terrorists, something I don't think anyone would accept in any country," Assad
told EFE.
At the same time, Assad once again reiterated that his government is always open for negotiations with the real opposition - but emphasized that opposition must be defined. "
Opposition, for everyone in this world, doesn't mean militant," Assad stressed. He said that Damascus is already engaged in dialogue with certain armed "groups, not organizations", so they would lay down their arms in exchange for "amnesty from the government" and a chance to return to "normal life."
"This is the only way to deal with the militants in Syria. Whenever they want to change their approach, give up the armaments, we are ready, while to deal with them as a political entity, this is something we completely refuse," Assad clarifies.
An agreement on a peaceful resolution to the crisis, according to Assad,
can only be reached with the "real, patriotic, national opposition" that has grassroots in and related to Syria, "not to any other state or regime in the world."
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