Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that a U.S. military intervention in Syria will end in failure.
In an interview with the Russian newspaper 'Izvestia,' the embattled leader said "the U.S. is waiting for failure, as in all previous wars waged by them, from Vietnam."
What is happening in Syria is not the people's revolution and demand for reforms, but terrorism. In this situation, the Western leaders cannot tell its citizens: "We are going to Syria in order to support terrorism." That is another obstacle to U.S. military intervention, Assad said.
He alleged that from the very beginning of the crisis the United States, France and Britain were trying to make a military intervention, but failed to convince Russia and China to change its position on the U.N. Security Council.
They were unable to convince their people and the world that the Middle East policy they have undertaken was clever and useful. "The situation here is different from the situation in Egypt and Tunisia," and that the "Arab revolution" concept "ceased to be convincing" in Syria. "They can start any war, but cannot know how long it will last and how much territory spreads. They realized that their script was out of control," Izvestia quoted Assad as saying.
According to Assad, the main reason for the hostilities is the constant influx of a huge number of terrorists from abroad, and the continued funding of terrorists from abroad and supplying them weapons. "Monthly on our land comes their tens of thousands," Assad said.
He dismissed accusations by the Opposition rebel forces that the Army had used chemical weapons, which was immediately picked up by a number of Western leaders. He asked how the government can use chemical - or any other weapons of mass destruction - in a place where its troops are concentrated.
The Syrian government on Sunday agreed to grant U.N. inspectors access to sites in Damascus where chemical weapons were allegedly used last week, but the West says it was too late, as evidence could have been tampered with, degraded or destroyed in the five days since the attack.
The agreement was reached after U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Angela Kane met with Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem on Sunday.
He expressed the regime's readiness to cooperate with U.N. investigators "to expose the false allegations of the terrorist groups accusing the Syrian forces of using chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague insisted that it was the Assad regime that carried out the large-scale chemical attack last Wednesday, killing hundreds of people including children.
"If the regime believed somebody else had carried out this attack then they would have given access to the U.N. inspectors several days ago ...but they have continued to bombard with artillery the areas concerned east of Damascus which, of course, may have destroyed some of the evidence," Hague said in a statement on Sunday.
He said Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the issue with U.S. President Barack Obama, and that "they are agreed there must be a serious response by the international community to the chemical weapons attack."
"So we're focused on that, we're discussing that with the United States and, of course, with many other countries around the world and we will keep everyone up to date with where we get to," Hague added, without commenting on options for responses.
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