Bashar Assad has warned countries willing to arm the rebels fighting against his government that they “will pay a price” if they go ahead with their plan, as he rejected accusations of using chemical weapons. The United States has announced that it could arm the rebels last week while the European Union’s weapons embargo has also expired.
In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Runschau of Germany, Assad simply said that supplying the “terrorists” with arms would make “Europe’s backyard” a “terrorist place.” According to him, “terrorists will return to Europe with fighting experience and extremist ideologies” after their experience in Syria. There have been reports that foreign nationals from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa have been joining the camps of both sides in the ongoing civil war.
European countries like the United Kingdom and France have been advocating for the rebels to be armed but they are finding it difficult to determine which factions of the rebels they should arm. Assad claimed such a task is equaled to “differentiating between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban a few years ago, or a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ al-Qaida.” The Syrian president challenged the countries and institutions claiming the use of chemical weapons to present their proofs. He stated that it’s “not logical” to use “weapons of mass destruction” when conventional weapons can be used. According to the United Nations, the war has already resulted to more than 93,000 death and millions remain displaced.
Assad acknowledged the presence of “only a few hundred (Hezbollah) men” but warned that if the war gets out of hand, the entire region will be engulfed in war. Hamas is urging Hezbollah to concentrate on fighting Israel rather than engaging in Syria which is fast becoming a sectarian war.
Syria: Assad defies the international community and challenges the rebel alliance
