Syrian President Bashar Assad warned that the United States should expect a retaliation if it launches a military strike against Syria in response to the alleged August 21 chemical attack.
"You should expect everything. Not necessarily from the government,"
Assad told CBS in an interview conducted in the presidential palace in
Damascus.
The US will "pay the price if you are not wise with dealing with
terrorists," the Syrian president told ‘CBS This Morning’ co-host
Charlie Rose in his first interview with American television in nearly
two years.
This comes as American President Barack Obama is seeking to win an
authorization from US Congress – that has been rather skeptical so far -
for a ‘limited’ military strike against the Syrian government. The
administration accused the Syrian government of ordering the use of
chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb last month.
Assad, however, denied any involvement in the alleged attack.
"There is no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people," he said.
According to Assad, the government forces were not in the area of the chemical weapons attack on August 21.
"Our soldiers in another area were attacked chemically," he said. "But
in the area where they said the government used chemical weapons, we
only had video and we only have pictures and allegations. We're not
there".
The full version of the interview, portions of which were shown by CBS, will be aired on Monday evening on PBS.
No comments:
Post a Comment