I am not a puppet. I was not made by the West to go to the West or to any other country. Bashar al-Assad More Quotes by Bashar al-Assad More Quotes From Bashar al-Assad We've been living in difficult circumstances and we prepare ourselves for every possibility. But that doesn't mean if you're prepared things will be better ; it's going to get worse with any foolish strike or stupid war. Bashar al-Assad stupidwarmean We're talking about one region, bigger regions, not only about Syria. This interlinked region, this intermingled, interlocked, whatever you want to call it ; if you strike somewhere, you have to expect the repercussions somewhere else in different forms in ways you don't expect. Bashar al-Assad differentsomewhere-elsetalking We are the fault line; if you don't deal with this fault line, you're going to have an earthquake, that's what we always said. Bashar al-Assad faultslinesearthquakes If the rebels or the terrorists in this region or any other group have [chemical warfare], this could happen, I don't know. I'm not a fortuneteller to tell you what's going to happen. Bashar al-Assad rebelwarfaregroups My decision was, and the decision of the different institutions, and the decision of the different officials in Syria - I'm on top of them - was to have dialogue, to fight terrorists, and to reform as a response at the very beginning, response to the allegations, let's say, at that time, that they needed reform in Syria, we responded. Bashar al-Assad reformfightingdecision Nobody knows [who they are] because when [terrorists] are dead and they are killed, they don't have any ID. Bashar al-Assad nobody-knowsterroristknows Talking about winning and losing is like if you're talking about two armies fighting on two territories, which is not the case. Those [terrorists] are gangs, coming from abroad, infiltrate inhabited areas, kill the people, take their houses, and shoot at the army. The army cannot do the same, and the army doesn't exist everywhere. Bashar al-Assad armyfightingwinning We wouldn't have withstood for two years and a half. We would have disintegration of the army, disintegration of the whole institution in the state ; we would have disintegration of Syria if that was the case. It can't be tolerated in Syria. I'm talking about the normal reaction of the people. If it's not a national army, it cannot have the support, and if it doesn't have the public support of every sect, it cannot do its job and advance recently. It cannot. The army of the family doesn't make national war. Bashar al-Assad armyjobswar We don't discuss this issue [conversations with Russia] as a government, but we discuss the repercussions, which is more important because sometimes repercussions could be more destroying than the strike itself. Bashar al-Assad issuesrussiagovernment Any American strike will not destroy as much as the terrorists have already destroyed in Syria ; sometimes the repercussions could be many doubles the strike itself. Bashar al-Assad terroriststrikessometimes We're talking about the responsibility, my responsibility according to the Syrian constitution that said we have to defend ourselves. Bashar al-Assad constitutionresponsibilitytalking From Russia for example, we have political support, which is different from the cooperation. We have cooperation for 60 years now, but now we have political support. Bashar al-Assad supportrussiayears This is cooperation [with Hezbollah, Iran , from Russia], I don't know what you mean by support. We have cooperation with countries for decades. Why talk about this cooperation now ? Bashar al-Assad russiameancountry For the West, they wanted to undermine the Syrian positions. For the petrodollar countries like Saudi Arabia, they're thinking undermining Syria will undermine Iran on sectarian basis. Bashar al-Assad irancountrythinking It is difficult for anyone to tell you what is going to happen. [Middle East] is an area where everything is on the brink of explosion. Bashar al-Assad explosionsdifficultmiddle-east We never said that the majority [of the terrorists] are not Syrians, but we said that the minority is what they call "free Syrian army." That's what we said. Bashar al-Assad majorityminoritiesarmy To have or not to have [chemical weapons] is a possibility, but to depend on what media says is nonsense, or to depend on some of the reports of the intelligence is nonsense and that was proven when they invaded Iraq ten years ago and they said "Iraq has stockpiles of WMD" and it was proven after the invasion that this was false ; it was fraud. So, we can't depend on what one magazine wrote. Bashar al-Assad wmdmediayears You look at [terrorists] faces, they look foreigners, but where are they coming from ? How precise this estimate is difficult to tell, but definitely the majority are Al-Qaeda. Bashar al-Assad majorityalslooks When you talk about Al-Qaeda it doesn't matter if he's Syrian or American or from Europe or from Asia or Africa. Bashar al-Assad alsmattereurope Al-Qaeda has one ideology and they go back to the same leadership in Afghanistan or in Syria or in Iraq. That's the question. You have tens of thousands of foreigners, that's definitely correct. We are fighting them on the ground and we know this. Bashar al-Assad iraqalsfighting
