President Bashar Assad said Friday in an interview with Russia 24 channel and Russia Today news agency that the demonstrations taking place in neighboring states do not resemble what happened in Syria.
Answering a question on whether the protests taking place in Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan over the past month remind him of the beginning of the Syrian events, Assad explained that “what happened in Syria is that at the beginning, groups of people were getting paid incite issues.”
“Shooting and killing started since the early days of protests (in Syria), which meets that these events were not spontaneous because the money was available and the weapons were ready, this is why we cannot compare the Syrian events with the situation in any other state,” he added.
“If the demonstrations that started in neighboring towns are spontaneous, honest and express national demands in improving the political and economic situations, they must remain patriotic, because the other states that intervene in other countries’ affairs, mainly the United States and the western countries including Britain and France might take advantage of the this situation in order to serve their own interests,” he continued.
Assad stressed the need for these movements to remain patriotic and reach the positive results sought by the people.