In an interview with AFP released on Friday, the Syrian
president said the process could "take a long time”,According to presstv.
Assad said the eventual goal of the government is to
liberate the whole country from the control of the terrorists.
"Regardless of whether we can do that or not, this is a goal
we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation,” President Assad stated. "It
makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part.”
He said that it would be possible to "put an end to
this problem in less than a year" if all terrorists’ supply routes from
Turkey, Jordan and Iraq were cut, otherwise "the solution will take a long
time and will incur a heavy price."
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which began in
March 2011, has claimed the lives of some 470,000 people.
President Assad also said his government "fully
believed in negotiations and in political action since the beginning of the
crisis," but stressed that negotiations have nothing to do with
uprooting terrorism. "If we negotiate, it does not mean that we stop
fighting terrorism. The two tracks are inevitable in Syria."
The latest round of talks on the conflict in Syria, which
was held in Geneva on February 3, were suspended after the Saudi-backed
opposition group, known as the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), refused to
attend the sessions.
Observers say the so-called HNC refused to continue
after the Syrian army, backed by Russian air cover, made significant gains
against Takfiri militant groups on several fronts, particularly in the
strategic northern province of Aleppo.
The opposition has now called for a halt in Russia’s
campaign as a condition for its participation in the negotiations, which are
expected to resume on February 25.
The Syrian president said a major government offensive is
under way in Aleppo with the aim of cutting off the terrorists’ supply route
from Turkey.
"The main battle is about cutting the road between
Aleppo and Turkey, for Turkey is the main conduit of supplies for the
terrorists," Assad said.
Reports say the Syrian army has virtually encircled Takfiri
militants in the eastern parts of Aleppo City after severing their main supply
line to the Turkish border.
On the refugee crisis
Meanwhile, the Syrian president blamed the influx of Syrian
refugees into Europe on the continent itself.
He also called on Europe's governments "which have been
a direct cause for the emigration of these people, by giving cover to
terrorists in the beginning and through sanctions imposed on Syria, to help in
making the Syrians return to their country."
Assad dismissed UN allegations of government war crimes as
"politicized" and groundless.
More than a million refugees arrived in Europe last year,
triggering the worst such crisis the continent has seen in decades. Most of
those refugees are from war-ravaged and poverty-stricken countries in the
Middle East and Africa, with many saying EU powers are also to blame for the
unprecedented exodus as they have done little to contain the problems in those
regions.