Al-Assad: Rebel Are Terrorists, Voters Love Me

Opposition rebels are foreign terrorists and most Syrians citizens wholeheartedly support their president, as evidenced by last week’s parliamentary elections. This is how Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad articulated his view of his country on Rossiya-24, Russia’s state news channel, in his first interview since December. “There are foreign mercenaries, some of them still alive,” he said. “They are being detained and we are preparing to show them to the world.” Al-Assad also cautioned against foreign involvement in Syria, warning neighboring nations that have served as transit points for weapons being smuggled into the country that “if you sow chaos in Syria you may be infected by it yourself.” Rebels and anti-regime activists say Syrian forces have mined many of the smuggling routes where weapons flow into Syria, mainly from Turkey and Lebanon. The full results of the elections, derided as manipulated by outsider observers, have yet to be publicized, and they have been overshadowed by a renewal of clashes in the centre and north of the country.