DAMASCUS, Syria
In 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.
