President Bashar al-Assad warned on Wednesday the West that it will pay a heavy price for its alleged support of al-Qaeda in Syria and said his regime’s defeat is not an option.
Assad, whose regime has been battling an uprising since March 2011, reiterated in an interview with official television Al-Ikhbariya his long-held claim that the roots of Syria’s conflict lie in a foreign-backed conspiracy.
He also warned the conflict could spill over into Jordan, and that there would be no dialogue with the exiled opposition.
“The West has paid heavily for funding al-Qaeda in its early stages in Afghanistan. Today it is doing the same in Syria, Libya and other places, and will pay a heavy price in the heart of Europe and the United States,” Assad said.
Last week, the jihadist rebel group al-Nusra Front pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had previously urged rebels to establish an Islamic state in Syria.
The UN says more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria over the past two years in a conflict that broke out after the regime unleashed a brutal crackdown on a popular uprising that later morphed into an insurgency.