(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian activists have accused a Swedish newspaper of 'polishing the image of Bashar al-Assad,' saying Expressen interview with the tyrant is no more than a reciprocal for freeing a reporter two months ago.
Assad's interview with Expressen that published on Friday has ignored all bloodshed of Syrian people since revolution since March 2011. activists said.
Al-Assad told Expressen that Syrian crisis had been complicated by external intervention, referring to states that are hostile to him, including Turkey, according to Reuters.
He said the U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was aware that if "he couldn't convince these countries to stop supporting the terrorists and let the Syrians solve their problem, he will not succeed".
The interview comes two months since the Syrian regime’s security forces released Expressen reporter in Syria Joachim Medellin who was arrested in the city of Qamishli, northeastern Syria.
Medellin was arrested for one week last February along with the Kurdish interpreter and member of the Free Media Union (FMU), Omar Sabri, during a media mission in the city, accoring to ARA news.
Activists hint to a blackmail to the newspaper made by Syrian regime to publish an interview turns a tyrant into a peace pigeon.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said Medellin was released due to swap deal with Assad forces, such a claim denied by activists and rebels.
The Syrian conflict is estimated to have killed around 220,000 people. Assad has lost control over much of the north and east while trying to shore up his control over the main population centers in the west, with the help of allies including Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The United States wants to see Assad gone from power and has shunned the idea of partnering with him against Islamic State, which has taken over large parts of Syria. In a series of interviews with Western media, he has repeatedly pressed his case that the jihadist groups in Syria pose a threat to Western states.
"Syria is a fault line," Assad said. "When you mess with this fault line you will have the echoes and repercussions in different areas, not only in our area, even in Europe," Assad said.
Turkish support 'main factor' in Idlib takeover
Al-Assad said Turkish military and logistical support was the main factor that helped insurgents to seize the northwestern city of Idlib from government control last month.
Idlib, a short drive from the Turkish border, is only the second provincial capital to fall to insurgents in the four-year-long civil war. It was captured by an alliance of Islamist groups including al Qaeda's Syrian arm, the Nusra Front.
"Any war weakens any army, not matter how strong, no matter how modern," Assad said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen, published on Friday.
In the fall of Idlib, "the main factor was the huge support that came through Turkey; logistic support, and military support, and of course financial support that came through Saudi Arabia and Qatar." (With Reuters)
Zaman Al Wasl
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