Al-Assad: Syrian Army will Retake North by Force if Necessary

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed to use military force to regain control of the north of the country if militants refuse to surrender and bring an end to the seven-year war. “We have chosen two paths,” Al-Assad said in an interview with Russian television channel NTV on Sunday. “The first and most important one is reconciliation. The second path is to attack terrorists if they don’t surrender and refuse to make peace.”

Asked about the terrorists in the north of the country where groups backed by Turkey hold territory, he said: “We will fight with them and return control by force. It is certainly not the best option for us, but it’s the only way to get control of the country.”

The president’s warning came as government forces continued their offensive in the south western of Syria near the borders with Jordan and the “Israeli”-occupied Golan Heights. Al-Assad also told Russian TV that Syria would not accept any Western money to help rebuild the country. “We have enough strength to rebuild the country. If we don’t have money – we will borrow from our friends, from Syrians living abroad,” the president said.

In parallel, the head of the Syrian state affirmed that any constitutional reform in Syria should be done by a national referendum which is a wholly Syrian matter, which is in no way related to the will of the United Nations or foreign countries.

Al-Assad said the war in Syria is not a civil war but an international one from the start, pointing out that the United States wanted to redraw the world map politically and maybe militarily, with Syria being one of the key battlefields for achieving this.

The President underscored that the Syrian-Russian friendship dates back to six decades, describing Russia’s military and political presence in Syria and the Middle East as ‘highly important’ to preserve international equilibrium and fight terrorism.

Al-Assad reaffirmed that Syria has no chemical weapons since 2013, indicating that the West invokes the chemical narrative only when its terrorist agents in Syria are defeated as a pretext for a direct military intervention against the Syrian army.

Source: News Agencies