‘Middle East will burn’ if west intervenes in Syria
Syria’s President Assad issues a fiery warning to western powers that any outside intervention in his country will destabilise the entire region.
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph President Bashar al-Assad warned that the west risked causing an “earthquake” in Syria if they sought to interfere with his governance.
Western governments, the United Nations and the Arab League have repeatedly condemned Assad’s government for a violent clampdown on a seven-month uprising against his rule, inspired by similar Middle East uprisings in the region.
Assad said that western countries “are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely”, adding: “but Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different.
“Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake.
“Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans? Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region,” Assad added.
Read more: Journalist witnesses Syrian authorities torturing activists
More than 3,000 people, including 200 children, are estimated to have died since the uprising started in March.
Assad’s forces blame rebel gunmen for the death of 1,100 soldiers and policemen.
Most international media have been banned from entering the country making it hard to verify accounts from either side.
However, internationally renowned film-maker Sean McAllister told Channel 4 News he saw activists being beaten in “torture cells” while he was detained by government forces.
“You would be brought out at three in the morning into the torture chamber and whipped with the cable,” he said.
Assad said that Syrian authorities had made “many mistakes” in the early part of the uprising, but that the situation had now improved and that he had enacted “reform” already.
“We didn’t go down the road of stubborn government,” he said.
“Six days after (the protests began), I commenced reform. People were sceptical that the reforms were an opiate for the people, but when we started announcing the reforms, the problems started decreasing.
“This is when the tide started to turn. This is when people started supporting the government.”
