Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a German
magazine he would not negotiate with rebels until they laid down their arms,
and said he was still considering whether to run for office again next
year.
In an extensive interview with Der Spiegel,
Assad said he did not believe it was possible to solve the conflict in Syria
through negotiations with the rebels, comments that might dampen hopes among
Western powers for a political solution.
"In my view, a political opposition does
not carry weapons. If someone drops his weapons and wants to return to daily
life, then we can discuss it," he was quoted as saying.
The Syria conflict started as a peaceful
protest movement against four decades of Assad family rule but turned into a
full-scale war after a government crackdown. More than 100,000 people have been
killed.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution
last week that demands the eradication of Syria's chemical weapons and endorses
a plan for a political transition in Syria that was agreed upon at an
international conference in Geneva last year.
Assad said he was not worried about his own fate,
which was why he and his family had stayed in Damascus through two and a half
years of conflict, and he felt the Syrian people were rallying behind him as
they saw the devastation wrought by the rebels.
He said Syria would hold presidential elections
two months before his current term ends next August and he could not yet say
whether he would run. "If I do not have the will of the people behind me
anymore, I will not run," he
added.
Assad said his government may have made errors
in the severity of its initial crackdown, but he still stood by its decision to
"fight terrorism, to defend our country".
"Each of us makes personal errors. We all
make errors. A president, too, makes errors," he said. "But even if
there were errors in the implementation, our fundamental decision was
right."
Assad said the Syrian crisis had been prompted
by forces outside the country, in particular al Qaeda fighters. Financial aid
from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as logistical aid from Turkey, was
sustaining the conflict, he said.
Meanwhile, United Nations peace
envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, repeated that it is not certain that peace
talks will take place in mid-November in Geneva as planned.
Asked if the conference was a
certainty, he said in an interview with TV5 television and RFI radio: "No,
this is not a certainty. I am trying to invite...I am encouraging everybody to
come to Geneva in the second half of November."
Brahimi said on Tuesday the
meeting was "not 100 percent certain".
International experts:
A U.N. official said
international inspectors have begun destroying Syria's stockpile of chemical
weapons and the machinery used to create it.
The official couldn't confirm
what specifically was destroyed, but said that by the end of Sunday, a
combination of both weapons and some production equipment would be put out of
order.
He spoke anonymously because of the
matter's sensitivity.
Inspectors are tasked by the U.N. to
dismantle and ultimately destroy Syria's chemical weapon program by mid-2014.
The push to destroy Syria's
chemical weapons program came after an August attack near Damascus that killed
hundreds of civilians.
On the field:
The Syrian state-run news agency SANA
reported on Sunday that eight people were killed and more than 20 others were
injured on as 3 mortar shells launched by opposition fighters landed in a
Christian neighborhood in Damascus.
SANA added that another mortar shell landed
in the vicinity of the Holy Cross Church in Damascus injuring 2 persons and
causing material damages to the church.
LBCI/REUTERS/AP