Syria's Assad, In an Interview, Suggests Peace Talks are Unlikely to Succeed

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, in a rare interview with a foreign newspaper, appeared to dismiss the possibility of serious progress arising from peace talks planned for next month, and to back away from earlier statements by Syrian officials that the government was willing to negotiate with its armed opponents.

“We do not believe that many Western countries really want a solution in Syria,” Mr. Assad told Argentina’s Clarín newspaper in an interview published online on Saturday, blaming those countries for supporting “terrorists” fighting his government.

“We support and applaud the efforts, but we must be realistic,” he said, referring to efforts by the United States and Russia to broker talks in June. “There cannot be a unilateral solution in Syria; two parties are needed at least.”

Mr. Assad took a hard line throughout the interview, according to a transcript in English provided in advance to The New York Times. He declared that he would run for election as scheduled in 2014 and would accept election monitors only from friendly countries like Russia and China.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/world/middleeast/syria-developments.html?_r=0

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“We are willing to talk to anyone who wants to talk, without exceptions,” he said. “But that does not include terrorists; no state talks to terrorists. When they put down their arms and join the dialogue, then we will have no objections. Believing that a political conference will stop terrorism on the ground is unreal.”

[John2]

1. Maybe it is because

the situation on the ground is changing and the Syrian military seems to be winning? The opposition appears to be fragmented and fighting among themselves and I don't mean verbally but actually turning their weapons on each other. There is also a report out that many of these fighters were payed by Qatar mostly as mercenaries. The Terrorists are turning their Guns on the fSA and they don't trust each other. Then you have the Kurds. Think about it. One of the groups, Al Nusa is being condemned by the Saudis but supported by the Muslim Brotherhood. The only unified military force in the Civil War is the Syrian military with their allies in Hezbullah and Iran. How do you tell a person to step down when they think they are winning the War? They are the one gaining more territory.

[Kurska]

2. I've never been a fan of Assad, but only a fool would say anything besides he is winning right now.

I agree, the opposition has completely shat the bed in the past few weeks. The have gotten terrible PR in the form of massacres, lost ground and have started fighting among themselves.

[Yavin4]

3. And if Romney were president, we'd have boots on the ground there now

Remember this when people post: "there's no difference between the parties".

[David__77]

5. I don't even think it's about that.

Whether or not the Syrian military was advancing or retreating, strategically or tactically, I cannot see any opposition party to talks. Who would this be? All of the opposition currently supporting armed struggle state that they refuse to engage in any negotiation, except for terms of surrender. The non-armed opposition has no sway on the ground, and there is no single opposition entity that could bring impost a peace agreement. Nor is there even a tidy collection of such entities. Syria would have better luck negotiating directly with Qatar and Turkey.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

7. Assad has more allies than that. The citizens of Syria that want a secular state are his allies

as well as Russia and China. And I think they may even have more faith in him after some of the terrorist acts the rebels have committed combined with the fundamentalist mentality some of the rebels are trying to institute in Syria by killing and expelling Christians and Secular Muslims. Hopefully there will be elections, but only after the rebels who aren't native to Syria return to their homes. I'm interested to see who runs. It's not in anyone's interest for the secular lifestyle Assad allowed to be replaced by Fundamentalism.

[jessie04]

4. He's got a lot of "peace talks"

Rebels
Israel
Turkey

[John2]

6. If you really look at

this situation, the only governmental entity in this Civil war is the Government in charge. They are backed by the Baathist Party with an elected President and Foreign minister. They also have an Armed Forces consisting of an Army, Air Force and Navy. They also have Foreign relations with states like Iran, China, Russia and North Korea as well as other states.

The Rebels are a fragmented force of different Waring factions from former deserters of the Syrian Armed Forces, Foreign fighters ( including religious extremists) and a former oppressed group (Kurds) funded by certain foreign Western nations and Arab states, that want to see Regime change in Syria for their own self interests.

You mention Israel. Israel has obvious reasons to want Syria divided. That is where these Western countries come in because Assad is definitely an enemy of Israel and a threat to their security.

Turkey has their own selfish interests which involves the Kurds and Turkey is not friendly with Iran or the Maliki Government in Iraq. Eliminating Syria will give them a bigger role in the region as a power. They are not very friendly with Russia either. That is one of the major reasons they joined NATO.

What I found interesting,and please feel free to correct this information if I'm wrong, The Governmental head of the FSA is a Syrian who is a citizen of the United States and resident of Texas. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States and hasn't lived in Syria for over a decade or two. Are we supposed to believe that he is suppose to be installed by the West as the new President of Syria? The second head of this Government also has ties within the United States because he was educated at the University of Indiana, and what is more, his religious affiliation is Christian, which is a minority in Syria. So this is the legitimate Government of Syria?

There is more information needs to be verified. Didn't the fracture of the opposition happen because these two were made the head of this declared legitimate Government and the more extremists Islamic groups walked away? Not only did they walk out, but many fighters from the FSA also joined them? So can this information be verified or dis proven by other sources? one more piece of information needs to be checked out, is it true the country of Qatar are paying the families and fighters a certain significant amount of cash to carry out this War?