Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview aired Monday that the global chemical weapons watchdog has faked and falsified a report over an attack near the capital Damascus last year “just because the Americans wanted them to do so.”
“That’s what the OPCW organization did – they faked and falsified the report, just because the Americans wanted them to do so,” Assad said in comments to Italy’s Rai News 24.
“So, fortunately, this report proved that everything we said during the last few years, since 2013, is correct.”
“We were right, they were wrong. This is proof, this is concrete proof regarding this issue,” Assad said about the leaks, speaking in English. He added that “again, the OPCW is biased, is being politicized and is being immoral.”
He noted that the situation in Syria ins much better, wondering: “Why do we need to use [chemical weapons]?! We are in a very good situation so why use it, especially in 2018?”
The Syrian president, meanwhile, lashed out at Europe as the “main player in creating chaos in Syria,” stressing: “So, what goes around comes around.”
“We hope the Vatican can play that role within Europe and around the world, to convince many states that you should stop meddling in the Syrian issue, stop breaching international law.”
Talking about the Russian role and relation with Turkey, Assad said that Moscow’s compromise with Ankara on Syria doesn’t mean that Russia “support the Turkish invasion.”
“They (Russia) wanted to play a role in order to convince the Turks that you have to leave Syria.”
“Because of the American negative role and the Western negative role regarding Turkey and the Kurds, the Russians stepped in, in order to balance that role, to make the situation,” Assad said, stressing that “Syrian integrity and sovereignty are in contradiction with the Turkish invasion.”
Asked if there would be a plan of discussions between him and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Assad said: “I wouldn’t feel proud if I have to someday. I would feel disgusted to deal with those kinds of opportunistic Islamists, not Muslims, Islamists – it’s another term, it’s a political term.”
However, he noted: “But again, I always say: my job is not to be happy with what I’m doing or not happy or whatever. It’s not about my feelings, it’s about the interests of Syria, so wherever our interests go, I will go.”
The interview was only aired by Syrian media on Monday. Assad’s office said the president gave the interview to RAI 24 on November 26 and that both parties agreed that the interview would air on Dec. 2, on both Italian RAI News 24 and Syrian national media outlets.
It added that RAI asked that the interview be postponed twice and Assad’s office said that it will broadcast the interview in full, on Monday (December 9) which they did.
RAI later issued a statement saying the interview wasn’t commissioned by any of the RAI news organs “thus it was impossible to agree in advance about a date to broadcast it.”
Source: Agencies
