Assad says his opponents ‘used up all their tools’ and failed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syria's President Bashar Assad claimed in an interview published Thursday, July 4, that his opponents have "used up all their tools" and failed to overthrow his regime. The remarks came as Western-backed Syrian opposition figures gathered in Turkey for talks on electing a new leadership, the Associated Press reports.

In comments to the state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, Assad rejected the idea that what has been happening in Syria since more than two years is a revolution. Instead, he insisted it is a conspiracy by Western and some Arab states to destabilize his country.

In the same interview, Assad praised this week's massive protests by Egyptians against their Islamists leader and said the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi meant the end of "political Islam."

Throughout the crisis, Assad has insisted that his government is not faced with a popular rebellion, but a Western-backed conspiracy against Syria, accusing the rebels fighting to topple his regime of being terrorists, Islamic extremists and mercenaries of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states that are allies of the United States.

"The countries that conspire against Syria have used up all their tools and they have nothing left except direct (military) intervention," Assad said in the interview, adding that such an intervention would not happen.

The paper, Al-Thawra, also quoted him saying his opponents failed because they tried to bring religion onto the battlefield. Assad insisted he still enjoys the support of the majority of Syrians, who have stood against Islamic radicals who have emerged as the most effective force on the opposition's side.

Members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority have dominated the rebel ranks, while Assad's regime is mostly made up of Alawaites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.

"Whoever brings religion to use for political or factional interests will fall anywhere in the world," Assad said in the interview, again citing Morsi's overthrow by the military in Egypt.