If you want to be transparent with your people, do not do anything cosmetic, whether to deceive your people or to get some applaud from the West.
Bashar al-AssadPeace in Syria is not only our priority; it's a Middle Eastern priority, and when the Middle East is stable, the rest of the world is stable, because the Middle East is the heart of the world geographically and geopolitically, and Syria is the heart of the Middle East geographically and geopolitically.
Bashar al-AssadThere is no such things as "Islamic terrorism," because terrorism differs from Islam. There's just terrorism, not Islamic terrorism. But the term "Islamic terrorism" has become widespread.
Bashar al-AssadI don't have support. Not me ; all Syria. Every agreement is between every class and every sector in Syria ; government, people, trade, military, culture, everything ; it's like the cooperation between your country and any other country in the world. It's the same cooperation. It's not about me ; it's not support for the crisis.
Bashar al-AssadWhen you use an armament, you use it to defend the civilians. You kill terrorists in order to defend civilians. That's the natural role of any army in the world.
Bashar al-AssadYou have to look at the reality in Syria. Whenever we liberate any city or village from the terrorists, the civilians will go back to the city, while they flee that city when the terrorists attack that area, the opposite. So, they flee, first of all, the war itself; they flee the area under the control of the terrorists, they flee the difficult situation because of the embargo by the West on Syria.
Bashar al-Assad