Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has acknowledged that his regime’s military capabilities have been depleted by the country’s ongoing conflict, but refused to accept any compromise solutions, Anadolu has reported. Furthermore, he insisted that the Syrian army is still “capable of carrying out its responsibilities.”
Al-Assad said that he issued a general amnesty for those Syrians who have not turned up to military recruitment depots because, he claimed, hundreds have pledged to complete their compulsory military service.
The Syrian president made his remarks during a speech broadcast on Syrian state television. Praising Iranian and Hezbollah fighters in Syria, he said: “Syria is not for the people who live in it or hold its passport. It is for its defenders. Only Iran has offered military expertise and our brothers in the Lebanese resistance [Hezbollah] fought with us.”
He said that China and Russia are the “safety valves” in the UN Security Council, and thanked both countries as well as Iran and Hezbollah. The Iranian nuclear agreement, the president added, is a “very big victory.”
Meanwhile, he accused the Syrian opposition of carrying out external agendas, noting that there is a difference between constructive opposition and “conspirator” opposition. “There are two components on Syrian soil,” Al-Assad claimed. “The terrorists and the Syrians.”