A picture uploaded on the official page of the Syrian Presidency on Facebook shows Syria’s First Lady Asma Al Assad serving an iftar meal for orphans and displaced families at an orphanage in Damascus.
BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said crushing “terrorists” must come before any political solution to end the crisis in his country, dimming hopes of an international peace conference any time soon.
Speaking in Damascus, Assad praised recent gains by his military forces across the country and said Syria can finish off the insurgency “within months” if people fight with the army through a “popular war”.
“How can we put an end to this battle and turn the table on others and restore security and stability? ... It is through this way (popular war) ... unity between the army and people to terminate terrorism.”
For more than two years, Assad has been battling a revolt against his rule which turned into a civil war.
After looking close to defeat, his forces — backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants — have pushed the rebels outside the capital and made gains in the central province of Homs and others areas.
The United States, Russia and the United Nations are still working to convene a meeting in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition groups to broker a peace deal. Russia is an ally and arms supplier of Assad, and, along with China, has blocked several UN Security Council resolutions by the United States and European powers to impose sanctions on the leader.
Attempts to organise a so-called “Geneva II” peace conference on Syria to revive a political transition plan agreed in the Swiss city in June 2012 have been futile.
UN diplomats say it is increasingly unlikely that such a conference will take place any time soon, if at all.
“Terrorism and politics are complete opposites,” said Assad, whose government refers to all rebel groups and many opposition figures fighting for his ouster as “terrorists”.
“There can not be political action and progress on the political track while terrorism hits everywhere,” Assad told prominent members of Syria’s clergy, business and arts community on Sunday evening at an iftar.
“No solution can be reached with terror except by striking it with an iron fist,” he added, in remarks run by the Syrian state news agency SANA yesterday.
Assad mocked the Syrian National Coalition, the western-backed opposition, as being morally bankrupt and “unpatriotic”, chasing positions of power, changing its stance regularly and receiving Gulf money. REUTERS
