Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has given a rare interview with Czech television where he accuses France, UK, US, and Saudi Arabia as supporting ISIS militants.
When asked what it would take to end Syria’s four-year civil war, Assad answered:
“When those countries that I mentioned — France, UK, US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some other — stop supporting those terrorists.”
“If you want to fight and defeat them (terrorists), you have to cut and suffocate their supplies, their armaments, money … coming mainly through Turkey and with the support of the Saudis and the Qataris,” he went on.
“I think it (the downing of the warplane) has shown the real intention of Erdogan who, let’s say, lost his nerve just because the Russian intervention has changed the balance on the ground.”
“If you look at the relation with the West, in 2005, I was the killer. In 2008, and after, I was a peace-maker. Then in 2011, I became the vulture. Now, there’s some positive change — of course shy kind of change, not the explicit one,” he said.
Sean Adl-Tabatabai