During a televised speech before local dignitaries in the Syrian capital, Damascus, the Syrian president also said that the army faced a shortfall in manpower and may have to give up positions in order to hold on to others of greater importance in its war with insurgents.
“The army is capable ... Everything is available, but there is a shortfall in human capacity," Assad said. He said groups fighting to topple him had received increased backing from their state sponsors.
"Every inch of Syria is precious," Assad added.
Assad's speech comes after his government announced a general amnesty for army deserters and draft dodgers Saturday. There are thousands of army deserters in and outside Syria, many of whom have gone on to fight with rebels seeking to topple Assad. The overstretched Syrian army suffers manpower shortages as young men flee the country to avoid compulsory military conscription.
Assad has issued similar amnesties for criminals, but has not released any of the thousands of political prisoners believed to be in Syria's prisons.
Assad said that his government did not want war "but when it was imposed on us, the Syrian Arab army repelled the terrorists everywhere." Assad refers to any rebel group fighting against his rule as terrorists.
The U.S. has begun training some moderate rebels who oppose Assad, but the civil war has seen Islamic extremist groups become the most effective on the ground. Those include the extremist ISIS group, which holds about a third of Syria and neighboring Iraq in its self-declared "caliphate."
[ alarabiya.net]
26/7/15
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Assad praises Iran, Hezbollah, admits army 'fatigued'...
ReplyDeleteIn a televised address broadcast Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad admitted that his regime’s military had been depleted by the country’s ongoing conflict, now in its fifth year.
But while admitting that the military’s capacities had been appreciatively reduced by the conflict, he went onto assert that the Syrian army was still “capable of carrying out its responsibilities”.
He also said that “political proposals” aimed at ending the conflict would be of little effect “if they are not based on the premise of combating and ending terrorism”.
In his address, which was broadcast on Syrian state television, Assad also praised Iranian military support for his regime, describing Iran as a “sister country”.
He also commended what he called “the Lebanese resistance”, in reference to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, which for the last two years has been fighting alongside the Syrian army against various armed Syrian opposition groups.
Assad went on to describe Russia and China as “safety valves” that prevented the U.N. Security Council from adopting resolutions in support of foreign intervention in war-torn Syria.
According to the U.N., more than 230,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in early 2011 between pro-Assad forces -- which include Hezbollah -- and armed opposition groups.
Roughly half of the country’s population has since been displaced by the violence, U.N. figures suggest, with nearly four million Syrians now seeking refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
aa.com.tr