Bashar al-Assad Quotes - Page 12

You cannot have partition only on political bases or geographic bases. It should be social first of all when the communities do not live with each other.

The worst loss for any country is not the infrastructure or the buildings or the material loss; actually, it's the human resources loss.

Many people, they flee not the war itself, but the consequences of the war, because they want to live, they want to have the basic needs for their livelihood, they don't have it. They have to flee these circumstances, not necessarily the security situation itself. So, you have different reasons for the people or the refugees to leave Syria.

I would only give a prize to whoever works for the peace in Syria, first of all by stopping the terrorists from flowing towards Syria, only.

There's a difference between a mistake or even a crime that's been committed by an individual, and between a policy of crime that's been implemented or adopted by a government.

If you want to kill the Syrian people, who's going to support us as a government, as officials? No one.

You can't say "the people of Aleppo" because the majority of the people of Aleppo are living in the area under the control of the government, so you cannot talk about the people of Aleppo.

The first thing you have to learn is how to conduct dialogue and how to make it productive.

If you want to be transparent with your people, do not do anything cosmetic, whether to deceive your people or to get some applaud from the West.

The place where the interests of all parties come together is the international community, along with its resolutions.

My primary goal is to create prosperity.

If you are going to be a mediator or arbitrator you have to be in the middle between the two sides; you cannot take sides only with one party.

Politics is about realities, not logic.

You have to be very closely linked to the beliefs of the people. This is the core issue. When there is divergence between your policy and the people's beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance.

Reform has to be based on opening your mind and opening the mind does not come from decrees or laws. It comes from a whole set of circumstances, which if you do not have, anything you do will be not productive or will be counter-productive.

Whether you call it terrorism or resistance, and whether you like Hamas or not, it is a political entity that no one can ignore.

Personally, I do not support the concept of suicide bombings. This is not part of our [syrian] culture. But whether you condemn them or not, suicide bombings are a reality.

America must listen. It must listen to the interests of others. But the US government has no interest in similarities, no matter how obvious.

The U.S. and Britain are incapable of controlling all of Iraq.

Is there an equality of power between America and Iraq? Definitely not; however, the Iraqi people are standing fast and are defending their land courageously.

When we analyze this war in a materialistic way and ask when is it going to end and who will be the winner and the loser, it means that we do not see the endgame.

The most significant indicator that there is no disaster in Iraq is the fact that there is no exodus.

You cannot reform your society or institution without opening your mind.

I am president, I don't own the country so they are not my forces.

But the issue has to do with land, which is our land.