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Subscribe to RSSNearly two years after the beginning of a civil war in Syria, an estimated 60,000 people have died. In a rare speech Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad refused to end the conflict. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
Updated at 4:52 p.m. ET: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday outlined what was billed as a new peace initiative that included a national reconciliation conference and a new constitution in a rare speech about the uprising against his rule, which has killed an estimated 60,000 people and brought civil war to the edge of his capital.
His foes reacted to the speech with scorn.
George Sabra, vice president of the opposition National Coalition, told Reuters the peace plan Assad put at the heart of his speech did "not even deserve to be called an initiative."
"We should see it rather as a declaration that he will continue his war against the Syrian people," he said.
Speaking before an overwhelmingly supportive crowd that interrupted his speech with chants and rapturous applause several times, Assad offered no concessions and even appeared to harden many of his positions. He rallied Syrians for "a war to defend the nation" and disparaged the prospect of negotiations. There was little to no acknowledgement that there are Syrians themselves who have taken up the fight.
"We do not reject political dialogue ... but with whom should we hold a dialogue? With extremists who don't believe in any language but killing and terrorism?" Assad asked.
"Should we speak to gangs recruited abroad that follow the orders of foreigners? Should we have official dialogue with a puppet made by the West, which has scripted its lines?"
In an interview with a Russian television channel, Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed to live and die in Syria, amid the 19-month old uprising against him. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
Assad said his initiative would not move forward until foreign funding for the rebels stops.
The European Union responded quickly, saying there can be no political solution until Assad steps down, a subject the Syrian president did not address in today's speech.
The State Department responded in a statement saying that Assad’s speech is “yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power.”
“His initiative is detached from reality,” the State Department said, and “would only allow the regime to further perpetuate its bloody oppression of the Syrian people.”
It was the 47-year-old leader's first speech in months and his first public comments since he dismissed suggestions that he might go into exile to end the civil war, telling Russian television in November that he would "live and die" in Syria.
As in previous speeches, he said his forces were fighting groups of "murderous criminals" and jihadi elements and denied there was an uprising against his family's decades-long rule. He struck a defiant tone, saying Syria will not take dictates from anyone.
At the end of the speech, supporters rushed to the stage, mobbing him and shouting: "God, Syria and Bashar is enough!" as a smiling president waved and was escorted from the hall past a backdrop showing a Syrian flag made of pictures of people whom state television described as "martyrs" of the conflict so far.
PhotoBlog: Destruction, resistance in war-torn Syria
Insurgents are venturing ever closer to Damascus after bringing a crescent of suburbs under their control from the city's eastern outskirts to the southwest.
Assad's forces blasted rockets into the Jobar neighborhood near the city center on Saturday to try to drive out rebel fighters, a day after bombarding rebel-held areas in the eastern suburb of Daraya.
"The shelling began in the early hours of the morning, it has intensified since 11 a.m. (4 a.m. ET), and now it has become really heavy. Yesterday it was Daraya and today Jobar is the hottest spot in Damascus," an activist named Housam told Reuters by Skype from the capital.
Assad officials in Moscow to discuss end to civil war
The Syrian Network for Human Rights, a London-based group that supports the opposition, said it documented 76 deaths throughout Syria on Saturday, 35 of them in and around the capital Damascus. Reporting in Syria is severely restricted, and NBC News could not confirm these numbers.
Amid violence and chaos in Syria, 400 US troops have been deployed to Turkey with Patriot missile batteries to bolster defenses along the border. NBC's Annabel Roberts reports.
Since Assad's last public comments, in November, rebels have strengthened their hold on swathes of territory across northern Syria, launched an offensive in the central province of Hama and endured weeks of bombardment by Assad's forces trying to dislodge them from Damascus's outer neighborhoods.
Syria's political opposition has also won widespread international recognition. But Assad has continued to rely on support from Russia, China and Iran to hold firm and has used his air power to blunt rebel gains on the ground.
Missile batteries
Despite the estimated death toll of 60,000 announced by the United Nations earlier this week -- a figure sharply higher than that given by activists -- the West has shown little appetite for intervening against Assad in the way that NATO forces supported rebels who overthrew Libya's Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
But NATO is sending U.S. and European Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to the Turkish-Syrian border.
Channel Four Europe's Alex Thomson has the rare opportunity to meet some of Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops.
Explosion at Syrian gas station kills, wounds dozens; opposition blames car bomb
The United States military said U.S. troops and equipment had begun arriving in Turkey on Friday for the deployment. Germany and the Netherlands are also sending Patriot batteries, which will take weeks to deploy fully.
Turkey and NATO say the missiles are a safeguard to protect southern Turkey from possible Syrian missile strikes. Syria and allies Russia and Iran say the deployments could spark an eventual military action by the Western alliance.
Syria's war has proved the longest and bloodiest of the conflicts that arose out of popular uprisings in Arab countries over the past two years and led to the downfall of autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Yes, I see, but we (USA have killed a lot more than 66,000 in just Afghanistan), so why do we have a problem with this guy, I never heard about Afghanistan attacked USA?--get real people!
First to clarify, I'm at lease in partial agreement with you as far as Afghanistan goes.
However, you are comparing apples to oranges Bund.
In Afghanistan we declared war on terror groups operating in and traversing through the country at will, and at least it's hypothesized, with the knowledge of at least some of the government. Our troops do their best to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.
In Syria Assad is killing his own people, not just the rebels opposing him but civilians he could care less about, in order to keep his regime in power and maintain his cushy life style.
You have a very short memory, Bundgaard. The attack by Al Queda on the World Trade Center was directed by terrorists given safe-haven and training in Afghanastan, under the Taliban.
"Sorry, was tied up in a hospital luxury suite for a few days until something blew over. Now, in this paper bag I have the 500 million that is supposed to help the Syrian people starving from all of our economic sanctions against you the past few years. It's all yours, but if someone asks... you spent it all on the Syrian people... got it?"
STRICTER GUN CONTROL CAN FIX THIS!
Oh...wait...sorry, wrong discussion.
Yes, Assad needs to go. Any leader who would allow tens of thousands of his own people, many civilians caught in the crossfire, must go. Any leader who would make air strikes against his own country must go. Any leader worth a damn would step down rather than kill the people he is supposed to lead. As others have pointed out, though, is this a case of "Better the devil you know than the one you suspect"? In a region where sectarian violence often determines who rules it would be equally likely that we wind up with another Saddam as it would a good leader. It's a region we can't change. Perhaps it a region we should never have tried to change. It would not have mattered in so far as their attitude toward us (the United States) goes. They would hate us and work toward our demise even if we'd never set a foot in the region.
Sounds like he's reading the writing on the wall of his downfall and trying to figure out how not to get his head chopped off for the murder thousands!!!
Yo Mohammed, make sure my bags are packed and the Lear is topped off. Help yourself to the Rolex's as there are some newer models I'm looking at in Switzerland. The silverware? It's all yours!
well, notice the language ?? again?,, this guy actually believes what he is saying, regardless of the facts, for him? it is a type! of reality,, which brings up the psychopathy "5 lies" deal again,, if a psychopath can repeat a lie 5 or more times, even if he/she knows it is a lie!, then,somehow for them, it becomes reality,..As we can see here, no?,We had this guy flagged at the get go as such,and the advice was and still is!"stay out of it", or you will only be playing his[and his pals ahem] games for them!"..We must be very carefull and think! before reacting to such an obvious psychopathic play, They are so out there, that what is reality for us, is something else for them,, you can show them,tell them,threaten them,"sanction" them etc,, and it is water off a ducks back,, the psychopath is ALWAYS! right,, always!,..it is always! "someone elses" fault,, always!,..and if people must die because or so! his fantasies can continue? then for him that is the way of it and carry on,..I know it is a nutter way of looking at our world, and yet,, so many, if not all! Dictators score high for this broken brained affliction,,so,, he is done people,, the flags are there in the language if we look,, Now what?.. eh?.. have a plan for after do we?..best get that in play asap! we says,,or it will all be to do all over again, and again,and again! as per certain histories etc,
Syria has Assad. USA has Hussein. What's really the difference?
Just have Hillsary add a couple billion more to his brown paper bag personal aid package... and an apology from Obama... he'll lighten up.
I wonder why Obama is supporting the terrorists too. When is Obama going to tell the Muslims to stop clinging to their guns, Quran and religion?
They're rebels in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria but the two caught in New York last week weren't called rebels; they were called Terrorists. Makes one wonder about the gov't and news definitions.
On another subject that may be related if anyone manages to pop a round in the back of Assads head...I wonder what his fellow Muslims have to complain about regarding his burial. Like Binladin it seems to be a good idea to bury men like this at sea lest their burial sites become gathering places for supporters to make him a martyr.
Muslim tradition required he be buried facing west...or is it east?. Something like that.
In burial at sea odds say he has a 25% chance of facing west.
This is better than being torn apart by an angry mob.
If he were a horse I might even bet on those odds!
I looked closely at Assad's visual background from his speech. Are those the pictures of the 60,000 people he has killed during his attempt at staying in power?
I'd rather listen to my cat fart than here this murders voice!
It would be a huge mistake to get behind the Al-Qaeda rebels, like repeating history all over again. It will come back to bite us once again and maybe even worse because they would have Syria as their home base.
Support Assad stop another Afghanistan in the making.
We already have another Iran developing in Egypt, and would, probably, happen in Syria, without Assad. The people in the Middle East are not used to, nor do most want, a pluralistic democracy, like in the West. They would rather have a limited religious dominated- republic, with a powerful shariat leader.
Supporting these rebellions seems like a wonderful action on the US part, and on the part of Europe, but in the end, it will not be to our advantage. We already lost too much in lives, money, etc., in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. We don't need to get involved in these internal conflicts in the Middle East.
Chavez and Assad gone...looks like January 2013 will be one of those good months. Exciting times!!
The opposition is increasingly overtaken by Islamists and Wahhabis., If Assad is toppled there won't be a guarantee to the safety of minorities like the Christians, the Druze and the Alawis. Assad even if he is a dictator is better than Islamist Sharia government bent upon eliminating what it sees as unislamic.
Assad-one shot one kill-game over.
I think the US should keep out of this conflict. We supported the rebellion in Egypt, and now we are getting a Muslim Brotherhood government. In the past, the Muslim Brotherhood has called for the overthrow of non-shariat governments in Muslim nations, and the eventual replacement of Western governments by shariat Koran abiding governments. Their aim is the rule of strict shariat Islam for the whole world. This is, probably, what we would get, when Assad would be replaced.
What a nimrod
Don't worry Assad, your days are numbered.
Hopefully they will Gaddafi your ass...lay your body out in a store freezer so the citizens can walk by and spit in your dead face. Hopefully, they get that shallow materialistic shopaholic wife of yours at the same time.
Doesn't make any difference if a rag head is in the palace or hiding in a cave... They're all nuts....
How would you characterize the 'Christians' in Northern Ireland??------"nuts" perhaps?
Asshat will swing from a rope like Saddam. Thats the end for all dictators.
Why is the U.S. involved in this internal civil war in Syria? Are our interests threatened by what is happening inside Syria? We want to protect Turkey. Why? Muslim Turkey is becoming more radicalized and is more aligned with Iran than with the West. NO! We don't need to be involved in this mess. What will happen in Syria is the same thing that has happened in Egypt which has bitten the hand that supports it. A tyrannical secular government that enslaves its people will be replaced by an even more tyrannical Muslim sharia-based government that enslaves its people. Let the Syrians settle their differences among themselves without our meddling. If the insurgents win with our help, they will not ally themselves with us and will bite the hand that supports it.
I disagree. The wests problems with the middle east, stem from supporting tyrannical secular governments, against the will of the majority there. To the point its created terrorist groups against us.
By supporting what the majority there wants, we repair our relationship with the middle east. And it has nothing to do with them becoming our ally. Its about getting them to no longer be an enemy.
freedom4Everyone. I like the way you think
Assad's a real a-hole...but when he's gone, we're just going to see an anti-American, Islamist extremist government in charge. Bottom line: There really just isn't much we can do about this Mid-Eastern Mess...except just stay out of it.