Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave a uncommon interview this week to a Kremlin-aligned Russian information presenter from his palace within the capital metropolis of Damascus, defending Hamas, praising Putin, and casting america as a hypocritical hegemon that the 2 dictatorships have served to humble.
Assad, whose authorities has been preventing insurgent teams for nearly 13 years in a civil struggle that has taken about 500,000 lives, offered Israel because the aggressor in Gaza, and justified Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel’s south as self-defense, insisting that the assault is justified by historic context.
The Syrian dictator additionally expressed help for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and in contrast the struggle between Israel and Hamas to that struggle, asserting that Russia’s invasion of the European nation was self-defense, simply as he views Hamas’s invasion of Israel to have been:
“Anybody from Israel will come and say to you, ‘however you’re speaking about historical past,’” Assad advised his Russian interviewer, Vladimir Solovyov, “[but] is historical past separated from the previous?” The Syrian president then implied that the invasion of Ukraine was a response to “makes an attempt to encircle your nation, Russia, from the south,” concluding, “Every part that occurs within the current is a results of historical past. The scenario is identical.”
Interview underscores Syria-Russia-Iran alliance
Assad has been allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin since September 2015, an alliance that’s broadly credited with having shifted the stability of the battle, turning the battlefield in Assad’s favor and thus rescuing the Arab nationalist regime. A relentless Russian bombing marketing campaign allowed the regime to retake town of Aleppo in late 2016, and Idlib from 2018 to 2020.
Each these campaigns had been broadly accused of struggle crimes, with Russian forces showing to routinely goal civilian infrastructure.
Iran additionally participated within the struggle, supporting Assad through arms, coaching, particular forces, and the help of its proxy militias, similar to Hezbollah, which has been attacking Israel’s north, and exchanging fireplace with the IDF alongside the Israel-Lebanon border, since Hamas attacked the Jewish state on October 7, initiating the continued struggle. Iran has additionally supported Russia’s struggle towards Ukraine, supplying the Russian army with arms similar to Shahed drones.
Solyvov, the Russian journalist who interviewed Assad, started the sit-down by praising Assad’s Syria as “nice nation that freely selected its destiny,” whereas invoking Iran as a possible sufferer of nuclear aggression by america or Israel, saying that these two had been the “solely international locations that would use nuclear weapons” and that Iran may very well be focused, if the battle within the area escalates.
Denial of struggle crimes by Assad or Russia in Syria and Ukraine
Assad and Solovyov additionally commiserated over the worldwide condemnations of alleged struggle crimes by the Syrian authorities through the nation’s civil struggle and by the Russian military in Ukraine. “In 2017,” the Russian presenter advised Assad, “the mendacity West alleged using chemical weapons,” a reference to the Khan Shaykhun chemical assault in Syria, which the US, Israel, Human Rights Watch, and others cost was carried out by the Assad regime and killed round 90 individuals, however Damascus and Moscow deny befell.
“When the particular Russian army operation started,” Solovyov went on, utilizing an official time period for the invasion of Ukraine two years in the past, “the West tried to interrupt the negotiations. In Istanbul, Russia was accused of horrific crimes in Bucha. Our individuals don’t imagine this.”
Solovyov was referring to the allegations of abstract executions, rape, and torture by Russian forces through the interval of its occupation earlier than the Ukrainian military recaptured it a few month into the struggle. Russia denies that any crimes befell, opposite to findings by america authorities in addition to NGOs similar to Amnesty Worldwide and media retailers such because the New York Instances.
“The individuals of the West should not a nasty individuals,” Assad responded, “however the media and politicians are allied with the intention to make this individuals ignorant and due to this fact they will inform them something.”
Assad praises Putin, decries the West
Solovyov requested Assad concerning the upcoming presidential election in Russia, during which Putin will face a number of pre-approved candidates, none of whom opposes the struggle in Ukraine. “To what diploma will these elections have an effect on the way forward for the world and never simply Russia?” Solovyov requested.
“Russia,” Assad answered, “is a rustic on which the destiny of the world relies upon,” and invoked an Arabic proverb that one should not swap horses in the midst of a battle, asserting that as a result of struggle in Ukraine, Russia should not change leaders. Assad then stated that Syrians “can’t take a look at the scenario in Russia as an inside scenario,” and that there was no query whom Syrians help, the plain reply being Putin.
In the meantime, the Syrian chief mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying that the wartime chief is “mainly a clown. This was his function earlier than the presidency”— Zelensky was a comic previous to coming into politics— “and he succeeded extra after he turned president on this respect.”
The comment about Zelensky got here within the context of a dialogue of western
sanctions, with Assad dismissing their long-term significance and urging Russians to not succumb to worldwide strain, describing the west as a transactional actor that can not be counted on. “You might pay a value… within the brief time period,” Assad stated of coming underneath Western sanction, “however in the long run, far and away, you’ll win.” The Syrian president invoked the historical past of the Shah in Iran for example of allying with the West solely to be betrayed when pursuits had been not aligned.
