Syria’s Assad hits out at Arab League

Syria’s embattled president Bashar al-Assad has hit out at the Arab League over the organisation’s observer mission
and other Arab-led efforts aimed at ending the country’s months-long deadly unrest.

Speaking in a rare address on state television on Tuesday, Assad asked what right other Arab 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?” he 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.”

The League has suspended Syria and sent a team of monitors to assess whether the regime is abiding by an Arab-brokered peace plan agreed to by Assad last month.

The moves were seen as humiliating for Syria, which considers itself a leading force of Arab nationalism.

However, Assad said his country would not “close doors” to an Arab-brokered solution to the 10-month crisis as long as it respected Syria’s sovereignty.

‘No orders to open fire’

In a speech lasting more than an hour and a half, Assad said the unrest which began last March had inflicted a “heavy cost” and accused “foreign conspirators” of working to destabilise the country.

He also said that no orders had been given to security forces to open fire on civilians.

“There is no cover for anyone. There are no orders for anyone to open fire on any citizen,” adding that “by law, nobody can open fire, except in self-defence,” he said.

Assad’s address at Damascus University was his first public speech since he agreed last month to the deployment of Arab League monitors intended to halt the government’s crackdown on dissent.

Assad said it had been his idea to send observers to Syria “to find out the truth”. He also said he would not step down, claiming he still had the Syrian people’s support, despite months of anti-government protests across the country against his rule.

“When I leave office it will be by the will of the people,” he said.

Assad defended the government’s ban on most reporting by foreign media inside the country, saying that at the beginning of the unrest all media had been allowed to work freely.

“But, fabrications from inside convinced us to put some control on this,” he added. Al Jazeera is among many media organisations banned from reporting without restrictions from inside Syria.

Assad, who has made repeated promises of reforms, said a new constitution would soon be put to a referendum, with a vote possible by March, followed by multi-party parliamentary elections within months.

“After legislation has been drawn up and a constitution… we will call a referendum… (maybe) in the first week of March.” he said. “Elections must be linked to a new constitution. They could be at the start of May.”

‘Iron fist’

Striking a defiant tone, Assad urged Syrians to remain steadfast, telling them that “victory is near” and that outside forces had been unable to “find a foothold in the revolution that they had hoped for”.

He also pledged to hit back at so-called terrorists following a pair of deadly bombings in Damascus and speading violence blamed on anti-government forces.

“There can be no let-up for terrorism — it must be hit with an iron fist,” he said. “The battle with terrorism is a battle for everyone, a national battle, not only the government’s battle.”

Assad, whose forces are accused of killing more than 5,000 people since the ongoing uprising against his rule began, is coming under increasing scrutiny from neighbouring countries.

His speech came as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, warned of an escalating crisis in Syria and as the United Nations Security Council was due to discuss the crisis in the country in a closed session later on Tuesday.

Erdogan said on Monday that the situation in Syria was “heading towards a religious, sectarian, racial war, and this needs to be prevented”.

“Turkey has to take on a leadership role here, because the current situation poses a threat to Turkey,” he said.

Erdogan, who has called on Assad to step down and imposed sanctions on Damascus, did not say what Ankara would do to prevent the country from descending into civil war.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies