Assad insists he will not quit, car bomb hits Damascus

Source : thenews.com.pk

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted he will not resign before the end of his mandate in 2014 as a car bomb exploded in the capital Damascus on Saturday killing at least three people.

"To resign would be to flee," Assad said in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarin when asked if he would consider stepping aside as called for by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

"I don't know if Kerry or anyone else has received the power of the Syrian people to talk in their name about who should go and who should stay. That will be determined by the Syrian people in the 2014 presidential elections."

He nevertheless said he welcome a US-Russian peace initiative to end Syria's two- year civil war.

The United States and Russia are trying to convene a peace conference in Geneva that would bring together members of the regime and the rebels fighting to oust Assad.

"We have received the Russian-US approach well and we hope that there will be an international conference to help Syrians overcome the crisis," Clarin quoted Assad as saying.

He added, however, that "we do not believe that many Western countries really want a solution in Syria. And we don't think that the forces that support the terrorists want a solution to the crisis."

Syria calls the rebels who have been fighting to overthrow the regime "terrorists" Saturday evening state television accused "terrorists" of detonating a car bomb in a north Damascus neighbourhood, saying it killed at least three people and wounded five others.

The state broadcaster said the bomb was placed in a car in the Rokn Eddin eighbourhood and that a disposal team was sent in to defuse another device.

"The terrorist explosion was the result of a big bomb concealed in a car ... Three people were killed and five others wounded according to a provisional toll," it said.

In the interview with Clarin and the Argentine news agency Telam, Assad spoke at length and also denied that his government has used chemical weapons against civilians.

The use of chemical weapons "would mean the death of thousands or tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Who could hide something like that?" he asked Telam. He nevertheless acknowledged that "thousands of Syrians have died" in the conflict that broke out in March 2011 as a peaceful uprising against the regime before turning into a full-fledged war.

The Observatory says that more than 94,000 people have now been killed in Syria.

Assad says he "can't think of living outside Syria

Source : Xinhua

DAMASCUS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has stressed that his departure will not stop the fighting in Syria, adding that it's "nonsense" to suggest that the conflict in the country is about the president and his future.

Assad made his remarks during an interview with the British Sunday Times published on Sunday, during which he described himself as a patriotic Syrian that can't think of living outside his country.

"No patriotic person will think about living outside his country. I am like any other patriotic Syrians," Assad said when asked if he would leave to improve the prospects for peace.

He stressed that it was nonsense to suggest that the conflict was about the president and his future, saying that "Clearly this is absurd, and recent precedents in Libya, Yemen and Egypt bear witness to this."

The embattled leader made the remarks as some superpowers have renewed their calls on him to step down.

Last week, newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that he was drafting diplomatic proposals to persuade al- Assad to give up power.

Kerry did not detail any potential offers or arguments to Assad, but hinted that his upcoming visit destinations will be Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia where he wants to talk with allies about ways to "ease Assad out."

However, and during his recent interview, Assad accused Kerry of wasting time by trying to ease him out of power, noting that his leadership was an internal matter.

"Any Syrian subject wouldn't be raised with any foreigners. We only discuss it with Syrians within Syria so I am not going to discuss it with anyone who is coming from abroad," Assad stressed.

Assad elaborated that "we have friends, we listen to their advice but at the end, it's our decision as Syrians to make what's good for our country."

Meanwhile, Assad slammed the British government's recent stance toward Syria, especially after recent statements about Britain's desire to arm the Syrian rebels, branding London government as " naive, confused, unrealistic" because it has been trying to end an EU arms embargo so that the rebels could be supplied with weapons.

He said that such a move could further inflame the conflict on ground, adding that "the problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of bullying and hegemony..."

In regard of the opposition, Assad adopted a conciliatory tone and renewed invitations to the opposition parties to join in a national dialogue, according the Sunday Times.

"We are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms," he said, adding that "we are not going to deal with terrorists who are determined to carry weapons, to terrorize people, to kill civilians, to attack public places or private enterprise and to destroy the country."

"We have opposition that are political entities and we have armed terrorists. We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists. We fight terrorism," he stressed.