Al Assad: Russia never sought my exit

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said yesterday that he has never faced pressure from Russia to step aside, as US Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Moscow seeking to revive stalled peace efforts.

Speaking to NBC News in Damascus, Al Assad insisted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had never raised the issue of his departure or a political transition. “Only the Syrian people define who’s going to be the president, when to come, and when to go. They never said a single word regarding this,” he said.

In his interview, Al Assad also said a US reporter killed in alleged Syrian government bombardment in 2012 was responsible for her own death.

Marie Colvin, a 56-year-old war correspondent working for British newspaper died in the rebel-held Baba Amr district of Syria’s third city Homs.

“It’s a war and she came illegally to Syria. She worked with the terrorists, and because she came illegally, she’s been responsible of everything that befall on her,” Al Assad said, speaking in English.

Asked if he thought Colvin was responsible for her own death, Al Assad replied “of course,” though he denied that his forces had targeted her.

His comments came days after relatives of Colvin filed a lawsuit in a US court alleging that Al Assad’s regime targeted her to stop her covering government atrocities. The suit, based on information from government documents as well as defectors, claims the Syrian military intercepted Colvin’s communications and unleashed a barrage of rocket fire on her location, killing her.