BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:00 A.M.) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his Syria would not accept any Western money to help rebuild the country, in an interview from Damascus with NTV’s Irada Zeynalova broadcast on Sunday.
“We won’t allow them to be part of it, whether they come with money, without money, whether they came with loan or with donation or a grant, whatever. We don’t need the West,” said Assad.
“They don’t give, they only take,” he added.
The Syrian president was responding to a question about the reported $400 billion cost of reconstruction, after seven long years of war.
He left the door open for negotiations with future US presidents, if they were conducted on a “productive” basis.
Elsewhere in the interview, Assad blamed the Western powers, led by the US, for the spread of terrorism in the Middle East.
“They will return of course, because they are going to be used again and again by the Western powers, but maybe under different brands,” he concluded.
Full transcript:
OT, Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria: “Let alone the reality that we don’t have any chemical weapons anyway.”
SOT, Irada Zeynalova, NTV presenter: “You don’t have at all?”
SOT, Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria: “We don’t have, no. Since 2013, we don’t have. But, put this aside, even if you don’t have it you should be using those weapons at least if you, if you are being defeated, not when you win the war and actually everytime we are winning they use it. So this is again the logic, that this is used as a pretext in order to support the terrorists in Syria.”
SOT, Irada Zeynalova, NTV presenter: “As far as I know, you need $400 billion to restore the country.”
SOT, Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria: “Frankly, this is the best statement of the war. The best Western statement of the war that they won’t be part of reconstruction in Syria, because very simply we don’t, won’t allow them to be part of it, whether they come with money, without money, whether they came with loan or with donation or a grant, whatever. We don’t need the West. The West is not honest at all. They don’t give, they only take.”
W/S NTV and Assad interview
SOT, Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria: “But in this case, it’s always since we had the first negotiations with the United States in 1974. We never achieve anything in any subject. The problem with the American Presidents is that they are hostages to their lobbyists, the mainstream media, to the huge coporations, financial, oil, armaments, etcetera. So they can tell you whatever you want. We are not happy to take about the Americans just because they are American. We are ready to discuss with anyone who could be productive and we don’t want believe that the American politics will be different in the foreseeable future. So it is just again a waste of time now.” *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
SOT, Irada Zeynalova, NTV presenter: “Every time we come to Western Ghouta, we see the signs left by ISIS (Islamic State) or al-Nusra (Jabhat al-Nusra): ‘We will return’. For us, it’s scary, because we spent a lot of money, we lost a lot of lives supporting Syria in her struggle with Caliphate.”
SOT, Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria: “First of all, this is ideology, dark ideology was promoted for five, nearly five decades, because it started in the late sixties, it’s not only in the nineties or after, around the world, mainly by the Saudi Wahabis and of course with the support of the United States and the West in general. So this is religious danger with political support. So, it’s both. So it’s not something spontaneous. They will return of course, because they are going to be used again and again by the Western powers, but maybe under different brands. Those powers were in Afghanistan thirty years ago and [US President Ronald] Reagan called them holy fighters, he didn’t call them terrorists. Now they are called terrorists, but they are using thoses terrorists. Maybe 10 years later they are going to be used somewhere in this world under different brand.”
Video credit: Ruptly
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