Assad: Foreign parties trying to destabilize Syria
DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-assad said on Tuesday that foreign parties were seeking to destabilize the country, as pressure mounted on the United Nations (UN) to take the lead in efforts to end 10 months of bloodshed.
“Regional and international parties who are trying to destabilize Syria can no longer falsify the facts and events,” the embattled leader said during a speech in Damascus.
“They turned to assassinations . . . with regional and international media coverage,” he said. “After all their attempts failed, the role of foreigners emerged.”
Assad hit out at the Arab League, which has had a widely criticized observer mission in Syria that was charged with overseeing a plan to end the violence.
He asked what right governments, including the absolute monarchies of the Gulf, had to lecture Syria about democracy or reform.
“The first parliament in Syria was in 1917. Where were they then?” Assad asked.
“Their situation is like a doctor who smokes and recommends to his patient to give up smoking while he, the doctor, has a cigarette in his mouth,” he said.
Syria’s opposition on Monday denounced the Arab League’s efforts and called on the UN to take charge of attempts to end the regime’s bloody crackdown on dissent that the world body says has cost more than 5,000 lives.