Bashar al-Assad: If You Want the Truth, Look to the Alternative Media

The following interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was conducted by a group of French reporters. Mr. Assad was asked questions in English, and answered in English. However, the French channel that released the interview included only an on-screen French translation of the questions. In this video, the questions have been translated back into English and superimposed over the French versions.

Regardless of one’s opinion of the Assad regime, Mr. Assad’s answers are lucid, clear, intelligent, and informative. Instead of reading what the mainstream media have to say about Bashar al-Assad, listen to what he has to say for himself.

And there’s at least one place I absolutely agree with him: “French politics harmed the French interests.”

NOTE: One of the eleven questions asked of Mr. Assad was accidentally repeated in the English titles. Look at #9 in the transcript of the questions to read the text of the correct question (which should have been at about 8:45 in the video).

Many thanks to Ava Lon for translating the questions:

Transcript of the questions:

1.   00:01   You have just met the French delegation. Do you think that this can influence French policy?
2.   01:20   You say that the recovery of Aleppo is a major victory for Syria. How do you feel about the thousands of victims and the massive destruction in the city?
3.   02:52   But was the bombing of the neighborhoods of Aleppo the only way to get the town back?
4.   03:03   A ceasefire has been agreed upon. Why does the Syrian army continue to strike in the Damascus-area village of Wadi Barada?
5.   05:04   The talks will take place at the end of the month in Astana. What concessions are you prepared to negotiate with the opposition in order for peace to return to Syria?
6.   06:00   Are you ready to discuss even your office as president?
7.   06:48   What will be the fate of the rebels?
8.   07:20   The French presidential elections will take place in a few months. Do you have a preference for one of the candidates?
9.   08:41   The candidate François Fillon would re-establish the dialogue with Syria. Could his election could change the situation?
10.   09:13   Is there a message you would like to address to France?
11.   10:32   Donald Trump was elected president of the United States and wishes to talk with Russia, which is one of your major allies. Do you think this could change the US position on Syria?
 

17 thoughts on “Bashar al-Assad: If You Want the Truth, Look to the Alternative Media

  1. He’s certainly not lacking in intelligence, we know he’s a eye doctor by profession. I’m intrigued by what motivated him to remain in Syria, especially a couple of years ago when the war was not going well for him. He could have flown to Iran or the Gulf with a suitcase full of gold and left it all behind. So what motivates him? You don’t hear the religious talk invoking “the will of Allah” from him, or see him surrounded by mullahs. Seems quite a secular muslim. I notice his wife wears Western clothing, as did his parents.

      • Yes, the people who would have been MASSACRED by the Saudi-Sunni-neocon thugs, had Assad caved and the Russians not come to their aid.

      • I can just imagine Hillary’s gleeful cackling: “We came, we saw, our buddies slit their throats and dumped them into mass graves.”

  2. When the EU and the establishment, try to freeze this gentleman out, then you know there is something strange going on.

    Assad is more Western than part of the Arab world. The propaganda against him, from the Western world, that should have supported him and his people, has been massive from Day 1. Assad explained already a long time ago about the devil he was fighting, but no one in the civilised world would listen.

    He stands out as soft spoken and civilised. Europe and America should be on the same side as him. But I guess, it’s the “Divide and Conquer” that has been put to work on the Western world, what we, until recently, used to know as the civilised world.

    Assad was a younger son, and was never meant to become president, so he studied to become an eye doctor(!). Had he ever been a typical fils de – son of – that is, of a president, in the Middle East, he might have done something totally different than studying ophtalmology. So, when his elder broder died, he, the doctor, stepped up as the president after their father.

    Is this the time to finally, tighten the millennia old ties with the great civilisations in the Middle East? Has the time come now, for Russia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the US and the rest of America, and the Judeo Christian civilisations in the Middle East, to forming one new Western coalition?

  3. I think Assad is correct, in that the alternative media is certainly a better place for perspective on what’s happening in Syria. Of course,you are as likely to read lies as truth in the alternative media. There is little filtering, so you have to consider your sources and logic.

    Like every other aspect of the Middle East, Syria was a pain for certain parts of US interests and its allies. Syria would not allow an oil pipeline associated with the EU and Saudi Arabia to go through Syria. Syria was firmly allied with Iran, which threatened Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Israel. And Syria certainly supported Hamas and Hezbollah, which threatened Israel directly. Also, Syria will always be hostile to Israel as long as Israel occupies the Golan Heights, which Syria used to shell Israel prior to 1967.
    http://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/1135-day-before-deraa.html
    (Note: I do NOT agree with every point of view of this article)

    There’s also little doubt the CIA, and CIA allies, sponsored and organized the Syrian civil war, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and untold destruction. I guess there are two questions:
    1) Is this in the best interest of the US;
    2) What actually motivated the CIA to sponsor such a destructive action?

    Let’s just say, it’s often better to handle a problem on an “as needed” basis than to try to solve it once and for all. The Palestinian question is one of those. The problem of Saddam Hussein in Iraq prior to 2003. The problem of the dictatorship of Gaddafi in Libya. All of those were diplomatic or tactical military, and not strategic, problems, and the “final” solution was catastrophic to real US interests.

    There was no reason to bring about the collapse of Syrian government. It had no upside whatsoever, except the temporary absence of a disciplined Syrian army facing Israel.

    As to the motivations of the CIA and the Obama administration in sponsoring the destruction of yet another Middle Eastern country: we only have speculations. My speculation is that the first thing to look at is that people making policy have no financial ties, past, present, or future, to the subjects of that policy. Trump had the right idea for his total ban of government officials from representing foreign government or business interests in the future. I think the manufacturers of military hardware, such as General Dynamics and many others, should be on the banned list for future employment of government officials.

    The actions of the CIA are certainly consistent with a “tilt” towards Sunni Islam, as opposed to Shia or even secularized Islam. It would certainly be consistent with the direction of the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrators in the US government and Hillary’s coterie of advisers and the Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of Republican fund-raising.

    • Sunni Islam and Saudi oil money go hand in hand. The Bush family, the Clintons,Obama and the CIA get their money from where?.
      While we know quite well where Trump gets his money.

  4. Assad needs to reassert his authority over the Syrian Military and those Muslim clerics still able to speak out against him and to rid himself, once and for all time, of that scourge and thorn in Syria’s side, called Hezbollah.

  5. Well done Bashar al Asad. Super intelligent approach to this interview. West created this mayhem in Sirya, after loosing Aleppo they backpedaling. Serbia supports Bashar and Syrian people. Shame on France and they role in distraction of prosperous and liberal state as pre war Sirya was.

  6. Any chance to hear what people have to say for themselves should be taken, we just can’t trust the media.

    Semi-OT:

    Unlike all my leftie acquaintances who never moved on from university days, I actually listened to what Trump had to say for himself. Just in case he actually became next president… He did not say that all Mexicans are rapists and thieves. He did not say that he was against immigration (legal). These claims, and other falsehoods (eg about women’s rights) keep being repeated by the media to create a new ‘truth’, and all my stupid acquaintances just buy it, because the media says so.

    I wish Trump would sue the relevant media for libel and thus force the world to actually listen to exactly what he did say on those occasions.

  7. Ronald, sorry to disagree with you totally. The Golan Heights has NEVER been part of Syria
    It has always been Israeli territory. Just like they did with the rest of Israel, Arabs took advantage of the fact that omly a small portion of Jewish presence was there after before the return of the
    Jews after the holocaust. For anyone to claim that as Syrian territory is ludicrous. By the way I do support Assad and the fact that yes, he ia a mild mannered man, nothing like the rest of his Muslim neighbours.

    • Lori,

      I’m happy to have people disagree with me and especially with facts.

      For any country except Israel, a long-term occupation eventually gets the de facto recognition by other countries that the occupying country is the legitimate government. You don’t see any movement to depose Turkey from Northern Cyprus.

      Also, Israel has good reason to not like Assad or the Syrian government.
      http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/golan_hts.html

      In my post, I suggested that threats such as Syria are sometimes dealt with best on an as-needed basis, rather than by trying to craft a solution to end it once and for all. Syria was a dangerous nuisance to Israel, but not an existential threat.

      Anyway, any action by Israel should belong to Israel alone. The US should not engage in any military or intelligence actions on behalf of Israel, unless it directly contributes to essential US security. Trying to overthrow the Syrian government did NOT fall into that category.

      Anyway, I don’t believe for a minute that the US supported ISIS and other militant Islamist rebel groups as a result of pressure from Israel. Unfortunately, we have to own that white elephant on our own, including the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, and the thousands of Syrian dead.

      And don’t let Assad’s mild manners fool you. Any ruler in that part of the world is a despot, whether he wears a uniform or a suit. If he weren’t a despot, he’d be dead and somebody else would be a despot.

  8. I salute you, President Assad, for your evident deep love of your country and people, and for sticking it out these grueling and horrific 6 years. You were up against unimaginably strong and cruel forces but you persevered.

    My deepest condolences to the families of the soldiers who gave their lives.

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