NeutralCitizen
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President Bashar Assad of Syria dismissed U.S. and European calls for him to step down as "meaningless" Sunday, and he declared that Syria's ailing economy could withstand escalating international sanctions.
In an interview with Syrian TV, Assad hardly mentioned the hundreds of thousands of protesters this summer who have posed the gravest challenge to his family's four decades of rule.
He seemed intent on portraying a sense of strength and stability to a population growing ever more anxious over the violence that has erupted across Syria and the country's increasing isolation.
"Syria will not fall unless there will be a crisis that will finish Syria and this can't happen," he said, wearing a blue suit and seeming relaxed. "I am reassured that the Syrians will come out of this crisis. I am not worried, and I want to reassure everybody."
Referring only obliquely to the protests, he suggested that the solution was "political." But despite insistent calls for him to refrain from using violence against demonstrators, he suggested that the security forces would continue the crackdown.
"The solution is political, but there are security situations that require the interference of security institutions," he said.
Given the scope of the crisis, some Syrians expected him to take more drastic steps. Instead, as he has done in his speeches since the uprising began in March, he offered far more tentative measures, dwelling on the familiar tropes of his ruling Baath Party: laws, priorities and committees.
His statements suggested a yawning divide between the large segment of the population that wants him to step down and his government, which believes its notion of reform can satisfy demonstrations that have briefly wrested two of Syria's five largest cities from state control and turned another into an urban battlefield.
Even for a government accustomed to bouts of isolation, the pressure from the United States and Europe is unprecedented. Last week, President Barack Obama joined European leaders in demanding that Assad surrender power "for the sake of the Syrian people." The U.N. commissioner for human rights said a withering crackdown that, by the count of activists, has killed more than 2,000 people amounted to crimes against humanity. In August alone, the Syrian military and security forces assaulted many of Syria's biggest cities: Hama, Deir al-Zour, Latakia and, most recently, Homs.
More sanctions lie ahead. The European Union is expected this week to ban imports of Syrian oil, one of the government's central sources of revenue. Though Syrian exports are a tiny share of the global supply, an estimated 90 percent of them are shipped to Europe.
Still, Assad insisted Sunday, "We can get all the resources and materials we need."
In an interview with Syrian TV, Assad hardly mentioned the hundreds of thousands of protesters this summer who have posed the gravest challenge to his family's four decades of rule.
He seemed intent on portraying a sense of strength and stability to a population growing ever more anxious over the violence that has erupted across Syria and the country's increasing isolation.
"Syria will not fall unless there will be a crisis that will finish Syria and this can't happen," he said, wearing a blue suit and seeming relaxed. "I am reassured that the Syrians will come out of this crisis. I am not worried, and I want to reassure everybody."
Referring only obliquely to the protests, he suggested that the solution was "political." But despite insistent calls for him to refrain from using violence against demonstrators, he suggested that the security forces would continue the crackdown.
"The solution is political, but there are security situations that require the interference of security institutions," he said.
Given the scope of the crisis, some Syrians expected him to take more drastic steps. Instead, as he has done in his speeches since the uprising began in March, he offered far more tentative measures, dwelling on the familiar tropes of his ruling Baath Party: laws, priorities and committees.
His statements suggested a yawning divide between the large segment of the population that wants him to step down and his government, which believes its notion of reform can satisfy demonstrations that have briefly wrested two of Syria's five largest cities from state control and turned another into an urban battlefield.
Even for a government accustomed to bouts of isolation, the pressure from the United States and Europe is unprecedented. Last week, President Barack Obama joined European leaders in demanding that Assad surrender power "for the sake of the Syrian people." The U.N. commissioner for human rights said a withering crackdown that, by the count of activists, has killed more than 2,000 people amounted to crimes against humanity. In August alone, the Syrian military and security forces assaulted many of Syria's biggest cities: Hama, Deir al-Zour, Latakia and, most recently, Homs.
More sanctions lie ahead. The European Union is expected this week to ban imports of Syrian oil, one of the government's central sources of revenue. Though Syrian exports are a tiny share of the global supply, an estimated 90 percent of them are shipped to Europe.
Still, Assad insisted Sunday, "We can get all the resources and materials we need."
