President Al-Assad to RT: Raising the issue of having multiple nationalities within the framework of federations is a prelude to division

DAMASCUS, Jun.9, (ST)- President Bashar Al-Assad has declared that the year 2022 will witness improvement in electricity, describing the issue of having multiple nationalities within the framework of cantons as a prelude to division.

The president’s remarks came during his interview with RT  Arabic Channel that was broadcasted in full this evening.

President Assad said: “If we agree that production is the solution to all livelihood and service problems, then we must know what the main obstacle is? The main obstacle is electricity, so during the past year, and during this year, the main focus was on how to resolve the problem of electricity under siege. We were able to reach solutions.Let’s say that the year 2022 will witness an improvement in the field of electricity.”

As for the Kurdish topic, the president clarified: “Raising the issue of having multiple nationalities within the framework of cantons and within the framework of federations means a prelude to division, while there should be Syrian diversity within the framework of national unity. Syrian diversity is a wealth and we look at it positively. It includes ethnic, national religious and sectarian diversity which enriches Syrian society and not the other way around, but when it is presented in the wrong way, it turns into a curse on the country, and this is what we will not allow to happen.

He asserted that any land being occupied by either the Turkish or the terrorists will be liberated with time.

President Al-Assad answered a question on the Turkish invasion of Syrian territories, by saying that Syria will resist any Turkish invasion.

“If there is an invasion, there will be popular resistance in the first stage…of course in the areas where the Syrian Arab Army is positioned, as the Syrian army doesn’t have positions in all Syrian areas. When military conditions allow direct confrontation we will do that,” President Al-Assad said.

“Two and a half years ago , a confrontation took place between the Syrian army and the Turkish army, during which the Syrian army managed to destroy some Turkish targets which had entered the Syrian territory…The situation, will be the same if military capabilities allow that. Apart from that, there will be popular resistance,” he added.

The president also said that the process of reconstruction has began even within a narrow framework, some of it through investors, companies and people who are rebuilding their facilities, while the other  part is related to what the state is doing in the field of reconstructing the infrastructure related to the main economic life in some big cities.

“There are companies from different Arab countries- not countries- that have expressed their desire to invest in Syria taking into consideration that there is severe pressure put on any company that wants to invest in Syria through imposing sanctions on it from the West. Therefore, this process will be slow and risky for many of them. Nevertheless, there are companies that have begun to invest in Syria by circumventing sanctions, but if we want to talk about reconstruction in its broad sense, I cannot say that the current situation, neither the political, nor the security, nor the economic one allows for reconstruction in the broad sense,” the president added.

Concerning the relations between Syria and Arab countries, president Al-Assad said that the Syrian-Arab relations during the war have not changed that much in the content since most of the Arab countries maintained their relationship with Syria and they were morally standing by Syria.

“We, as Arab countries in general, are subject to external pressures in all areas. As long as we are subject to this pressure the result is the same, the result is a negative  Here the return of Syria to the Arab league or the cancellation of its suspension is morphological. , it may have some benefits, but we do not rely on it,” the president affirmed.

Moreover, the president underscored that Syria’s relations with any country are not subject to discussion with any party in this world. No one defines  with whom Syria builds relations and with whom it does not build relations. They do not intervene in our decisions and we do not intervene in their decisions. This issue is unnegotiable and it is not on the table, even if it was proposed to us, we would reject it from the start.

Concerning the repeated Israeli attacks on Syria, President Al-Assad said: “The terrorist for us is the Israeli army, but with a Syrian identity or other identities. When this terrorist began to retreat  and his morale collapsed,  the Israeli intervention was a must to raise the morale of the terrorists and re-mobilize them. So what “Israel” is doing now comes in this context and does not come in any other context.”

At the beginning of the interview, the president said that  Russia is facing a war that can’t be associated with NATO expansion; rather, it is an ongoing war that started even before communism and the First World War (WWI), pointing out that Russia’s strength today constitutes a restoration of the lost international balance.

“We can look at Russia from two perspectives, the first is as an ally, whose victory in a battle and whose political position becomes stronger at the international area, will serve our interest. The second is represented in Russia’s strength which, today, constitutes a restoration of the lost international balance even if it is a partial restoration…This hoped-for balance will reflect on small countries in the first place, including Syria. This is minimally the reason, without getting into other legal details. I am talking from a strategic point of view,” President Al-Assad stated.

Basma Qaddour