Syrian foreign ministry: Assad’s interview distorted to deal a blow to Syria

The spokesperson for the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs Jihad al-Maqdisi said that the statements made by Syrian President Bashar Assad during his latest interview with ABC are still being distorted.           

Al-Maqdisi added that what the U.S. Department of State’s spokesperson said aims at dealing a blow both to the interview with the Syrian President and to the Syrian army.        

In a press conference, al-Maqdisi said that there were attempts to distort the content of the interview conducted with Assad, adding that what the channel aired during the interview’s Syrian Army axis was incomplete and taken out from its normal context.     

“All TV channels have the right to edit; however, they do not have the right to distort”, he said.        

During the conference, al-Maqdisi showed Assad’s full conservation during the interview, proving that ABC took some of his statements and aired them out of context.         

Al-Maqdisi clarified that president Assad wanted to correct the formulation of the question raised by ABC's Barbara Walters, who asked him whether 'His forces….'', -with a possessive 'his'-. Assad then said 'not My forces', adding that there were forces in Syria whose constitutional task is to protect security and stability in the country.      

Mistakes were committed, to which all are accountable for in accordance with the appropriate judicial mechanism and an ad hoc committee to investigate and punish the perpetrators as long as there was evidence, al-Maqdisi quoted President Assad as saying to ABC's Barbara Walters.