I am president, I don't own the country so they are not my forces.

Sometimes you may kill tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands with very primitive armaments.

We don't say that we don't have it, we're still secular in Syria, but with the time, this secularism will be eroded.

If you want to kill the Syrian people, who's going to support us as a government, as officials? No one.

[The Jews] tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.

Circumstances don't matter, only my state of being matters. What state of being are you choosing?

The first question that I ask : do I have public support or not. That is the first question that I asked as President. If I don't have the public support, whether there's the so-called "Arab spring" - it's not spring, anyway - but whether we have this or we don't, if you don't have public support, you have to quit, you have to leave. If you have public support, in any circumstances you have to stay. That's your mission, you have to help the people, you have to serve the people.