Those fighters, the Syrian part that you're talking about, lost its natural incubators in the Syrian society - they don't have incubators anymore ; that's why they have incubators abroad. They need money from abroad, they need moral support and political support from abroad. They don't have any grassroots, any incubator. So, when you stop the smuggling, we don't have problems.
Al-Qaeda has one ideology and they go back to the same leadership in Afghanistan or in Syria or in Iraq. That's the question. You have tens of thousands of foreigners, that's definitely correct. We are fighting them on the ground and we know this.
Russia is very important, Iran is very important, Hezbollah is very important. All of them are important. Each one made important achievements against the terrorists in Syria, so it's difficult to say who is more important than the other.
When you talk about Al-Qaeda it doesn't matter if he's Syrian or American or from Europe or from Asia or Africa.
[ Jihadists] are going to be against you sooner or later.
Almost all countries have natural dividing lines, and when ethnic and religious partition occurs in one country, it'll soon happen elsewhere.
The sarin gas is a very primitive gas. You can have it done in the backyard of a house ; it's a very primitive gas. So, it's not something complicated.
We have agreements with many countries including Iran, including Russia, including other countries that are about different things including armament. It's cooperation like any cooperation between any two countries, which is normal. It's not related to the crisis.
We're not sure that if there's chemical weapon used and who used it. We can't talk about virtual things, we have to talk about facts.
We are ready to cooperate in any way to achieve stability in Syria, of course taking into consideration the interest of the country, and the will of the Syrian people.
If there is any change regarding that hope, we should ask the Syrian people, not anyone else in the world.
Even if you want to take the American story, they say we used chemical weapons the same day the team or the investigation team came to Syria ; is it logical ? It's not logical. Even if a country or army wanted to use such weapon, they should have waited a few days till the investigation finished its work. It's not logical, the whole story doesn't even hold together.
I will tell [Barack Obama] very simply : present what you have as evidence to the public, be transparent.
The armament of the government is legal armament. Any other armament is not legal.
We didn't say that 80% [of terrorists], for example, or the majority or the vast majority, are foreigners. We said the vast majority are Al-Qaeda or Al-Qaeda offshoot organizations in this region.
Why should you use a term [rebels] in the United States and England and maybe other countries and use another term in Syria ? This is a double standard that we don't accept.
I think the Congress is elected by people, it represents the people, and works for their interest. The first question that they should ask themselves : what do wars give America, since Vietnam till now ? Nothing. No political gain, no economic gain, no good reputation.
It started partly as a sectarian war in some areas, but now it's not, because when you talk about sectarian war or religious war, you should have a very clear line between the sects and religions in Syria according to the geography and the demography in Syria, something we don't have.
We don't discuss this issue [ chemical weapons ] in public because we never said that we have it, and we never said that we don't have it. It's a Syrian issue ; it's a military issue we never discuss in public with anyone.
You have different parties, different factions, you have different ideologies ; you have everything in Middle East region now.
My country and me, we are part of this region, we're not separated. We cannot discuss it as Syria or as me ; it should be as part, as a whole, as comprehensive. That's how we have to look at it.
"Winning" is a subjective word, but we are making advancement. This is the correct word, because winning for some people is when you finish completely.
You want me to believe American evidence and don't want me to believe the indications that we have. We live here, this is our reality.
Hezbollah fighters are on the borders with Lebanon where the terrorists attacked them. On the borders with Lebanon, this is where Hezbollah retaliated, and this is where we have cooperation, and that's good.
In the initiative that we issued at the beginning of year 2013 we said every party with no exceptions as long as they give up their armaments.
