Assad vows to crush rebellion
9 Aug 2012 7:24 AM IST
President Bashar al-Assad vowed to crush the 17-month rebellion against his regime and to cleanse Syria of ‘terrorists,’ as his troops engaged rebels in key battleground city Aleppo.
‘The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite,’ he was quoted by state news agency SANA as telling visiting senior Iranian envoy Saeed Jalili.
Assad had earlier appeared on television for the first time in more than two weeks in a meeting with Jalili, a top aide to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Jalili offered Assad his country’s backing, saying Tehran would ‘never allow the resistance axis – of which Syria is an essential pillar – to break.
‘What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on the one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other,’ he added.
Iran has accused Turkey and Gulf countries of arming the opposition in Syria, in collusion with the United States and Israel, to overthrow the Assad regime.
Jalili was previously cited by Iran’s Al-Alam television station as saying ‘the crisis in Syria must be solved internally, through national dialogue, and not through the intervention of external forces.’
He added: ‘The Syrian people are hostile to any plan supported by the Zionists and the US.’
Assad said his country was ‘able to defeat foreign plans targeting the resistance axis and Syria’s role in it.’
Tehran also sent its foreign minister to Ankara and a letter to Washington holding them responsible for the fate of 48 kidnapped Iranians.
In Beirut on Monday, Jalili issued a veiled warning to countries backing the rebels. ‘Those who believe that, by developing insecurity in the countries of the region by sending arms and exporting terrorism, they are buying security for themselves are wrong,’ Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
In commercial capital Aleppo, clashes rocked several areas of the city centre on Tuesday, while the army also shelled rebel-held areas in the east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The fighting in Aleppo and its surrounding province killed at least 18 people, the watchdog said, adding the nationwide toll was 68.
Aleppo has been bracing for a major ground offensive after a senior security official said the army had completed a buildup of some 20,000 troops.
On the humanitarian front, more than 22,000 Iraqis have fled Syria in less than three weeks, while 12,600 Syrians have done so since the beginning of the year, the UNHCR representative in Baghdad said.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said Syrians urgently need life-saving medicines, and the World Food Programme said 1.5 million people in rural areas will need food aid in the next three to six months. And Britain announced a grant of $15.6 million to aid thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
‘The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite,’ he was quoted by state news agency SANA as telling visiting senior Iranian envoy Saeed Jalili.
Assad had earlier appeared on television for the first time in more than two weeks in a meeting with Jalili, a top aide to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Jalili offered Assad his country’s backing, saying Tehran would ‘never allow the resistance axis – of which Syria is an essential pillar – to break.
‘What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on the one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other,’ he added.
Iran has accused Turkey and Gulf countries of arming the opposition in Syria, in collusion with the United States and Israel, to overthrow the Assad regime.
Jalili was previously cited by Iran’s Al-Alam television station as saying ‘the crisis in Syria must be solved internally, through national dialogue, and not through the intervention of external forces.’
He added: ‘The Syrian people are hostile to any plan supported by the Zionists and the US.’
Assad said his country was ‘able to defeat foreign plans targeting the resistance axis and Syria’s role in it.’
Tehran also sent its foreign minister to Ankara and a letter to Washington holding them responsible for the fate of 48 kidnapped Iranians.
In Beirut on Monday, Jalili issued a veiled warning to countries backing the rebels. ‘Those who believe that, by developing insecurity in the countries of the region by sending arms and exporting terrorism, they are buying security for themselves are wrong,’ Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
In commercial capital Aleppo, clashes rocked several areas of the city centre on Tuesday, while the army also shelled rebel-held areas in the east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The fighting in Aleppo and its surrounding province killed at least 18 people, the watchdog said, adding the nationwide toll was 68.
Aleppo has been bracing for a major ground offensive after a senior security official said the army had completed a buildup of some 20,000 troops.
On the humanitarian front, more than 22,000 Iraqis have fled Syria in less than three weeks, while 12,600 Syrians have done so since the beginning of the year, the UNHCR representative in Baghdad said.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said Syrians urgently need life-saving medicines, and the World Food Programme said 1.5 million people in rural areas will need food aid in the next three to six months. And Britain announced a grant of $15.6 million to aid thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
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