”Terrorism doesn’t have borders”
DAMASCUS, (ST)_Under the auspices of H. E. President Bashar Al-Assad, the ‘International Media Conference against Terrorism’ is to be held in Dar al-Assad for Culture and Arts, Damascus Opera House, tomorrow July 24th through 25.
More than 130 media figures from Syria, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Cyprus, Britain, Germany, and Kuwait will take part in the two-day event, Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi declared.
He added that the conference, which is organized by Information Ministry, will release a document that will be a reference for future work in fighting the Takfiri terrorism.
“The conference is being held five years after the terror war on Syria and it will be very important due to the international and regional changes, if to say,” the minister said.
The participants will focus on the need for forming regional and international alliance to confront terrorism, the role of media in current wars and on the importance of media in military and field works.
The Syria Times Online seizes the opportunity as to publish some of H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad discourse regarding the scorpion of terrorism and its risks and threats against the entire village of today’s globe:
“They send weapons to the same terrorists under the title of moderate opposition when Obama said it’s elusive, so the armaments will actually go to whom? To the terrorists. So, this is contradiction. It doesn’t work.”
From President Assad’s France 2 TV Interview, April 20, 2015
“We don’t have anything to ask from the French intelligence. We have all the information about the terrorists.”
From President Assad’s France 2 TV Interview, April 20, 2015
“American drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, they killed more civilians than terrorists.”
From President Assad’s France 2 TV Interview, April 20, 2015
”Whenever you talk about terrorism, it’s always serious, because it’s always dangerous, anytime, anywhere, no matter how.”
From H. E. President Assad’s Expressen Newspaper Interview, April 17, 2015
”Terrorism is serious and dangerous because it doesn’t have borders, it doesn’t have limits. It could hit anywhere; it’s not a domestic issue. It’s not even regional; it’s global, that’s why it’s always dangerous.”
From H. E. President Assad’s Expressen Newspaper Interview, April 17, 2015
”In our case, it’s more dangerous, let’s say, the situation is worse not only because of the military situation that you have mentioned in your question. Actually because this time it was having a political umbrella by many countries, many leaders, many officials, but mainly in the West. Many of those officials didn’t see the reality at the very beginning. It’s more dangerous this time because we don’t have international law, and you don’t have the effective international organization that would protect a country from another country that uses the terrorists as a proxy to destroy another country. That’s what’s happening in Syria. So, I’ll say yes, it is dangerous, but at the same time, it’s reversible. As long as it’s reversible, it’s not too late to deal with it. It’s going to be more serious with the time when the terrorists indoctrinate the hearts and minds of people.”
From H. E. President Assad’s Expressen Newspaper Interview, April 17, 2015
”The Wahhabi ideology, which forms the foundation for every terrorism in the world. No terrorist acts for the last decades in the Middle East and in the world happened without this ideology. Every terrorist bases his doctrine on the Wahhabi ideology.”
From H. E. President Assad’s Expressen Newspaper Interview, April 17, 2015
”The problem with the United States and of course some Western officials is that they think you can use terrorism as a card in your pocket, as a political card. Actually, terrorism is like a scorpion; whenever it has the chance, it will bite. So, they know, but they didn’t estimate how dangerous terrorism is to be used as a political card.”
From H. E. President Assad’s Expressen Newspaper Interview, April 17, 2015
”We warned from at the very beginning of the crisis, and I said Syria is a fault line, when you mess with this fault line you will have the echoes and repercussions in different areas, not only in our area, even in Europe. At that time, they said the Syrian president is threatening. Actually, I wasn’t threatening; I was describing what’s going to happen. It doesn’t take a genius because that’s the context of events that happened many times in our region, and we have experience with those kinds of terrorists for more than 50 years now. They didn’t listen, so what happened was warned of before, and what we saw in France, in Charlie Hebdo, the suicide attempts in Copenhagen, in London, in Spain, ten years ago, this is only the tip of the iceberg; terrorism is a huge mountain. It’s not isolated events. When you have those isolated events, you have to know that you have a big mountain under the sea that you don’t see. So, yes, I expect, as long as you have this mountain, and as long as many European officials are still adulating countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar just for their money and selling their values and allowing the Wahhabi dark ideology to infiltrate and be instilled in some communities in Europe, we have to expect more attacks in that regard.”
From H. E. President Assad’s Expressen Newspaper Interview, April 17, 2015
”First of all, terrorism is not a war. First of all, it’s a state of mind; it’s a culture, so you have to deal with this culture. You have to deal with it in an ideological way, and that implicates the education and the culture. Second, those terrorists exploit the poor people. You have to deal with poverty, so economic growth is very important, development. Third, you have to deal with the political issue that’s being used by these terrorists in order to indoctrinate those youths or children in solving the political problems in our region, for example the peace issue was one of the primary reasons for those terrorists to recruit terrorists.”
From H. E. President Assad’s Expressen Newspaper Interview, April 17, 2015
“And that’s by ISIS, by al Qaeda, by al Nusra. It’s not something we discover or we try to promote. It’s very– I mean their book– they use the same books to indoctrinate the people. The Wahhabi books.”
From H.E. President Assad’s CBS interview, March 29, 2015
”I say that for the Syrians to succeed, foreign intervention should stop. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some European countries should stop arming the terrorists. This was actually acknowledged publically by the French and by the British. They said they have been sending weapons to the terrorists. They should stop funding the terrorists, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Then, the political solution will be easy, and reconciliation with the armed groups will be easy, because the Syrian society supports reconciliation now and supports all these solutions. The Syrian society has not disintegrated as they expected. What is happening in Syria is not a civil war; in a civil war there should be lines separating the parties, either on ethnic, religious, or sectarian grounds. This doesn’t exist in Syria. People still live with each other, but most people escape from the areas in which the terrorists operate to the safe areas controlled by the state.”
From H.E. President Al-Assad’s Russian Media Interview, March 27, 2015.
”An anti-terrorist coalition cannot consist of countries which are themselves supporters of terrorism.”
From H.E. President Al-Assad’s Russian Media Interview, March 27, 2015.
” Some states deal with terrorism as if it were a gang operating somewhere and should be eliminated. This is a final solution. However, the real solution for terrorism is an intellectual and ideological one, and consequently the involvement of those responsible directly is essential and I support it.”
From H.E. President Al-Assad’s Russian Media Interview, March 27, 2015.
“the Syrians are determined to continue fighting terrorism, defending their country, and defying hegemony.”
From H.E. President Al-Assad’s interview to the Portuguese RTP, March 4, 2015.
” the main obstacle why the Syrian army couldn’t do so, and as part of this couldn’t help the Christians a few days ago that have been kidnapped by ISIS, is the unlimited support that’s been offered to those terrorists by the Western and regional countries.”
From H.E. President Al-Assad’s interview to the Portuguese RTP, March 4, 2015.
“We cannot be in an alliance with a country who supports terrorism.”
From H.E. President Al-Assad’s BBC News interview, February 10th, 2015.
” …the source of this Islamic State ideology and other Al Qaeda-affiliated groups is the Wahabis that are being supported by the royal family in Saudi Arabia.”
From H.E. President Al-Assad’s BBC News interview, February 10th, 2015.
“We have been suffering from extremism for more than five decades. And terrorism, in its stark shape, appeared in Syria in the 1970s. At that time we called for international cooperation to fight terrorism. Nobody cared about that then. In the West, they were not aware of this problem. That’s why we have always been ready to help and cooperate with any country that wants to fight terrorism. And for that reason we helped the Americans, and we are always ready to join any country which is sincere about fighting terrorism. We will never change our position in that regard, before, during, or after the crisis. The problem of the west is that it did not understand how to deal with this issue. They believed that fighting terrorism is similar to a computer game, which is not true. Fighting terrorism should be through culture, the economy, and in different fields.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
“When you talk about terrorism, about killing civilians, and regardless of the political position, agreement or disagreement with the people who have been killed, this is a case of terrorism; and we are against killing innocent people anywhere in the world. This is our principle.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
“We are one of the countries which best understand this issue because we have been suffering from terrorism for the past four years and we lost thousands of innocent lives in Syria. That’s why we sympathize with the families of those victims. However, and at the same time, we want to remind many people in the West that we have been talking about these repercussions since the beginning of the crisis in Syria. We have been saying, you shouldn’t support terrorism and provide it with a political umbrella, because this will reflect on your countries and your people.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
“They didn’t listen to us. Western politicians were short-sighted and narrow-minded. What happened in France proved that what we said was true. At the same time, this incident brought European policies to account, because they are responsible for what happened in our region, for what happened in France, and maybe what happened earlier in other European countries.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
“We need to fight terrorists because they are killing innocent people, and we have to defend these people. This is the most important and urgent method to deal with it. But if we want to talk about the crisis, fighting terrorism doesn’t need an army, but needs good policies. We should fight ignorance with culture and education, should build a good economy to fight poverty, and there should be an exchange of information among the countries concerned with fighting terrorism.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
“The problem cannot be addressed in the way they addressed it in Afghanistan, I mean what they did in Afghanistan in 2001. A group of Congressmen visited Damascus at that time and they were talking about invading Afghanistan in revenge for what happened in New York earlier. I said this is not how you should do it, because fighting terrorism is similar to treating cancer. You do not treat cancer by cutting it, but by extracting it. What happened in Afghanistan is that they cut the cancer, and the result was that it spread much faster. That’s why, as I said, we should focus on good policies, on the economy, and on culture and education.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
“what is the relationship between the existence of ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria and the president? Can we say that the cause of 9/11 in New York was President Bush, and that if Bush was changed, then 9/11 wouldn’t have happened? This is unrealistic and illogical. They know that, but they insist on continuing to tell these lies for the reasons I mentioned earlier. They do not dare acknowledge that they were mistaken, that they misread the situation in Syria, that they listened to ignorant officials in countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia and that they sold their values for petrodollars. They allowed themselves to be led by these countries. This is the real reason for what happened in Syria not that the president did not step down or that he remained in his position.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
“We are fighting all sorts of terrorists, whether ISIS, Jabhet al-Nusra, or others”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad interview with the Czech Literarni Noviny, January 15, 2015.
‘Terrorism is an ideology, not an organization or a structure; and ideology doesn’t acknowledge any borders. 20 years ago, terrorism used to be exported from our region, particularly from Gulf countries, like Saudi Arabia. Now, it is coming to our region from Europe, especially from France. The largest percentage of the European terrorists coming to Syria are French; and you had a number of incidents in France. There was also an attack in Belgium against a Jewish museum. So, terrorism in Europe is no longer asleep, it is being awakened.’
From H.E.’s Paris Match Interview, December 4, 2014.
”Syria is subjected to a foreign conspiracy and terrorism will return to where it was originated. The West has lately adopted what I used to say during the start of the crisis because it knew that the fire will hit its territories”
From H.E.’s Lebanese Al-Akhbar Daily interview, June, 2014.
”The most basic element, which we continuously refer too, is that the Geneva Conference should produce clear results with regard to the fight against terrorism in Syria. In particular, it needs to put pressure on countries that are exporting terrorism, – by sending terrorists, money and weapons to terrorist organizations, – especially Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and of course the Western countries that provide political cover for these terrorist organizations. This is the most important decision or result that the Geneva Conference could produce. Any political solution that is reached without fighting terrorism has no value. There can be no political action when there is terrorism everywhere, not only in Syria but in neighboring countries as well. From the political side, it is possible for Geneva to contribute to a process of dialogue between Syrians. There has to be a Syrian process within Syria and whilst Geneva could support this, it cannot be a substitute for it.”
From H.E.’s Agence France Presse AFP’s interview, January, 20, 2014.
”Carrying weapons transforms any opposition into terrorism,”
From H.E. interview with Al-Mayadeen TV /October/ 21,2013
“Terrorism can’t be used as a card and Syria has ever been against terrorism,”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad interview with Al-Mayadeen TV ,October, 21,2013
“When we restore stability; that’s why we must get rid of the terrorists. Then, we need to get rid of their ideology that has infiltrated certain areas of Syria, because it is more dangerous than terrorism itself.”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad interview with the German Der Spiegel News Magazine, October,7,2013
“The biggest victory today is to eliminate terrorism, terrorists and terrorist thinking,”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad interview with Tishreen Paper October , 6,2013
“If we do not fight terrorism, we are deceiving ourselves. Fighting terrorism is the priority now.”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad interview with Tishreen Paper October , 6,2013
“It is not possible to put terrorism in your pocket and use it as a card because it is like a scorpion which won’t hesitate to sting you at the first opportunity,”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad interview with Turkish Halk TV and Yurt paper October,4,2013
“But when you have terrorism, you cannot expect the political solution to solve everything.”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad Rai News Interview, September 29, 2013
“This confirms what some Americans are saying in the American media – that the Obama policy is based on supporting extremism and terrorism”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad Interview with TeleSUR TV, September 26, 2013
“We will not negotiate with those who are armed. We only agree to negotiate with an opposition that conducts political activities rather than terrorism. No country in the world would negotiate with terrorists.”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad CCTV Interview, September 23, 2013
“There can never be a ceasefire between a state and terrorists. Anywhere in the world, it is the duty of the state, in accordance with the constitution, to fight terrorism against citizens in its society; it is self-evident that any state should defend its citizens.”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad CCTV Interview, September 23, 2013
“what is happening is terrorism and has nothing to do with reform.”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad CCTV Interview, September 23, 2013
“We lost members of family. We lost friends and that’s why we’re fighting terrorism.”
From H.E.’s President Al-Assad Interview with Fox News, September 19, 2013
“My enemy is terrorism and instability in Syria.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad’s RT TV Interview , November 9 , 2012
“If the whole world, or let us say a big part of the world, including your people, are against you, are you a superman?! You are just a human being. So, this is not logical. It is not about reconciling with the people and it is not about reconciliation between the Syrians and the Syrians; we do not have a civil war. It is about terrorism and the support coming from abroad to terrorists to destabilize Syria. This is our war.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad’s RT TV Interview , November 9 , 2012
”We are fighting terrorism. We are implementing our constitution by protecting the Syrian people. Let’s go back to what happened in Russia more than a decade ago when you faced terrorism in Chechnya and other places; they attacked people in theaters and schools and so on, and the army in Russia protected the people, would you call it war crimes?! No, you would not. Two days ago, Amnesty International recognized the crimes that were committed few days ago by the armed groups when they captured soldiers and executed them. Also Human Rights Watch recognized this. Human Rights Watch recognized more than once the crimes of those terrorist groups and few days ago it described these crimes as war crimes, this is the first point. The second point, if you have an army that committed a crime against its own people, this is devoid of logic because the Syrian Army is made up of Syrian people. If you want to commit a crime against your people, then the army will divide, will disintegrate. So, you cannot have a strong army while you are killing your people. Third, the army cannot withstand for twenty months in these difficult circumstances without having the embrace of the public in Syria. So, how could you have this embracement while you are killing your people?! This is a contradiction.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad’s RT TV Interview , November 9 , 2012
“Solving the crisis is not only through the elimination of terrorism, or through force. We have to use all possible means including tolerance. That is why we continue to embrace this policy.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad’s Addounia TV Interview , August 29 , 2012
“If the attack people and burn and destroy – of course this is terrorism by the law. But you have people who were implicated without being criminals. For different reasons – financial reasons. They were paid the money, sometimes on the threat and sometimes for certain illusions and delusions. So, not all of them are terrorists. That’s why we absolved many of them when they give up their arms.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad’s German TV (ARD Network) Interview , July , 2012
“Dialogue is a strategic option. Whatever you do, whatever other option you have – you need a dialogue. At least to make sure that you can do something peacefully. But as long as you have terrorism and as long as the dialogue didn’t work, you have to fight the terrorism. You cannot keep just making dialogue while they are killing your people and your army.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad’s German TV (ARD Network) Interview , July , 2012
“We have two axes of a solution: The first one – you have to fight terrorism. There is no question about fighting terrorists. Nowhere in the world. But what you do is somebody kills civilians, kills innocent people, kills children and kills your soldiers and the police and anyone. You have to fight with him if he is not ready for a dialogue. And that’s what we’ve been seeing so far.”
From H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad’s German TV (ARD Network) Interview , July , 2012
“Don’t you justify all your military operations in northern Iraq and in Turkey under the title of fighting terrorism? Do we say that the Turkish state is killing its people in this case? These are double standards, and this is political hypocrisy which we do not accept.”
From President Bashar Al-Assad’s Cumhuriyet Interview , July 3, 2012
“But development and terrorism can never meet.”
From President Bashar Al-Assad’s Cumhuriyet Interview , July 3, 2012
“Terrorism is not related to the political process. It targets all the homeland, its institutions and its parties. It is a separate case and its treatment is different and cannot be subject to any of the standards I have mentioned. We must fight terrorism to cure the homeland. Consequently, there is no tolerance and no leniency towards terrorism or those who support it. There is no tolerance except with those who have abandoned it. We will continue to confront it decisively while opening the door for all those who abandon it,”
From H.E. President Bashar al-Assad At the People’s Assembly June 4, 2012.
“Terrorism will not be able to break our people’s will; and proud Syria will remain the heart of pan-Arabism and the castle of steadfastness. It will regain its health and foil the attempts of haters and conspirators and will again witness their disgraceful defeat.”
From H.E. President Bashar al-Assad At the People’s Assembly June 4, 2012.
”Terrorism has struck all parties without exception; it hasn’t struck one party and spared another. It hasn’t been part of political differences, and hasn’t stood with one party against another, and hasn’t decided to be on the scene as part of this political problem.”
From H.E.’s Parliament Speech, (June 3, 2012)
”Terrorists are concerned neither with reform nor with dialogue. They are criminals who have set themselves a task; and they are not concerned with condemnation or denunciation. They do not care about the tears of wives who have lost their husbands and mothers who have lost their children. They will never stop until they complete their task regardless of anything. They will never stop unless we stop them. Not distinguishing between terrorism and the political process is a great error made by some people. It lends legitimacy to terrorism sought by terrorists and their masters from the first day of the events. Making this distinction between terrorism and the political process is essential in order to understand and know how to move towards improving the conditions we live under.”
From H.E.’s Parliament Speech, (June 3, 2012)
”Terrorism is not related to the political process. It targets all the homeland, its institutions and its parties. It is a separate case and its treatment is different and cannot be subject to any of the standards I have mentioned. We must fight terrorism to cure the homeland. Consequently, there is no tolerance and no leniency towards terrorism or those who support it. There is no tolerance except with those who have abandoned it. We will continue to confront it decisively while opening the door for all those who abandon it, provided that they do not have blood on their hands. Thousands of those who have carried arms have responded to our call and the state has forgiven them.”
From H.E.’s Parliament Speech, (June 3, 2012)
”I raise a question: why didn’t this terrorism that we see today strike so violently before the crisis although Syria is surrounded by countries which have known this kind of terrorism for over ten years? The answer is that chaos is the natural environment for terrorism and those who have promoted a new age of freedom and prosperity, without knowing what they are talking about, have embraced chaos, and chaos embraced terrorism; and consequently, and without knowing it, these people have become involved in, in one way or another, in terrorism. Today we see, as a result of short-sightedness, that the freedom they have chanted slogans for is about the blood and the dead bodies of our children and that the democracy they talked about is soaked with our blood. We have paid a high price, but I expect that the price we are going to pay after the end of the crisis might be higher, not in terms of security, but in terms of moral values. You are aware of the new concepts which have invaded the minds of a large segment of Syrian youth, concepts like terrorism, violence, robbery and mercenary fighting.”
From H.E.’s Parliament Speech, (June 3, 2012)
”Terrorism will not be able to break our people’s will; and proud Syria will remain the heart of pan-Arabism and the castle of steadfastness. It will regain its health and foil the attempts of haters and conspirators and will again witness their disgraceful defeat.”
From H.E.’s Parliament Speech, (June 3, 2012)
”We say that there is a great religion – Islam, and there are terrorists taking cover under Islam. Who should we banish: religion or terrorism? Do we denounce religion or terrorists? Do we fight those who trade in Islam or fight terrorism? The answer is clear: It is not the fault of Islam when there are terrorists who take cover under the mantle of Islam.”
From H.E’s Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)
”In cases of war or confrontation, states rearrange their priorities. Our utmost priority now, which is unparalleled by any other priority, is the restoration of the security we have enjoyed for decades, and which has characterized our country, not only in the region but throughout the world. This will only happen by striking these murderous terrorists hard. There is no compromise with terrorism, no compromise with those who use arms to cause chaos and division, no compromise with those who terrorize civilians, no compromise with those who conspire with foreigners against their country and against their people.”
From H.E’s Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)
”The battle against terrorism will not be the battle of the state or state institutions alone. It is the battle of all of us. It is a national battle; and it is everyone’s duty to take part in it. “Internal sedition is more grievous that murder”, because it involves dismantling and fragmenting society and ultimately destroying it. This is what we shall not allow in order to keep Syria immune and impregnable.”
From H.E’s Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)
”We cannot fight terrorism without fighting chaos, for both of them are linked. This should be clear. Immunity drops when national awareness gets weaker.”
From H.E’s Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)
”If we go back to the 1970s and 1980s, when the devils’ brothers, who covered themselves with Islam, carried out their terrorist acts in Syria. In the beginning there were many Syrians who were misguided. They believed that they were genuinely defending Islam. They didn’t take any position. When things became clear decisive acts were taken and it was quick when the people stood with the state at that time. Of course the killing and the assassinations went on for six years. We don’t want to wait all that long. Things are clear for all of us. If we stood together and embraced members of the security and other relevant systems, I believe the results will be quick and decisive, because terrorism strikes, and every time it strikes it makes reform more costly and more difficult.”
From H.E’s Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)
”The question is a race between the terrorists and reform. Terrorism and those standing behind it don’t want reform and want to reach a stage where we say there is no time for reform. Let’s deal with terrorism. In that case they would have an excuse to ask for intervention in Syria. All of us have recently felt, through television, radio and the internet, that people are worried and upset and all of them are calling for decisive action.”
From H.E’s Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)
”Of course, this issue is already settled for us because dealing with terrorism must be in the strongest legal means. We are keen of the law because we are keen at same time on the blood of innocent people. We do not want the price of the fight against terrorism to be the blood of innocent people, but the problem is that they began to hit innocent people. Now, the Syrian people are being killed and political belonging has nothing to do with the person killed even if he is an opponent to the state. They are killing the Syrian people; they are punishing the Syrian people because the Syrian people refused to abandon his morals, refused to become a mercenary and refused to sell his conscience. Thus, it was necessary to punish the Syrian people everywhere.”
From H.E’s Damascus University Speech, ( January 10, 2012)
Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim
alibrahim56@hotmail.com