Syria Leader, in Rare TV Interview, Disparages Opponents
Source: NYT
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that he faced no real domestic opposition in the 15-month-old uprising against him, the violence in his country is entirely the work of foreign-backed terrorists, and the boycott of parliamentary elections last week was a fiction.
The interview, conducted on Tuesday by Russiya 24, a Russia state television station, was Mr. Assad’s first since December. It suggested he had hardened longstanding views about his adversaries in the face of escalating international pressure. He also was dismissive of a question over why the political reforms sought by opponents was so slow in Syria.
“We have an acute problem with terrorism,” he said, “Terrorists don’t care about reform, they are not fighting for reform.”
Street protests that erupted in March 2011 demanding greater democratic freedoms in Syria were met with a widespread security crackdown. An estimated 10,000 civilians have been killed as well as hundreds of soldiers. The United Nations continues to say that an unacceptable level of violence exists in Syria, laying the onus on the government to withdraw its troops and heavy armaments from major population centers first to allow an April 12 truce to take hold.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/world/middleeast/bashar-al-assad-in-rare-tv-interview-disparages-opponents-in-syria.html
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