Syrian President Bashar al-Assad displayed a new defiance in an interview broadcast Thursday, warning Israel and suggesting he had secured plenty of weapons from Russia as his opponents falter politically and Hezbollah fighters strengthen his military campaign.
Mr. al-Assad spoke in an interview on Al Manar television, owned by his ally Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant group, further punctuating his message of confidence that he could prevail in a civil war that is more than two years old and has claimed more than 80,000 lives.
Asked about Russian weapons deliveries, Mr. al-Assad said: “Russia is committed with Syria in implementing these contracts. What we agreed upon with Russia will be implemented, and part of it has been implemented over the recent period, and we are continuing to implement it.”
He was vague on whether Russia’s deliveries included an advanced S-300 air defence missile system – of particular concern to Israel because the missiles can hit deep inside Israeli territory.
Before the broadcast, Al Manar sent out text messages that paraphrased Mr. al-Assad as saying Syria had received a first shipment of the S-300 missiles.
It was unclear why those comments were not included in the broadcast. American and Israeli officials have been pressing Russia not to deliver the S-300 system to Syria.
Mr. al-Assad spent considerable time in the interview on warning Israel, which attacked suspected weapons caches in Syria earlier this month. He called Israel the underlying instigator of the Syrian crisis.
“We will retaliate for any Israeli aggression next time,” Mr. al-Assad said. He also suggested the possibility of renewed fighting in the Golan Heights, the disputed border area occupied by Israel, that has been largely quiet for for more than 40 years.
Mr. al-Assad reiterated the Syrian government’s intention to attend a United Nations peace conference on Syria, which Russia and the United States have been seeking to convene in Geneva in the coming weeks. But he said any agreements that might result from such a conference would have to be approved by Syrians in a referendum.
Even as Mr. al-Assad’s broadcast was aired, fissures within the Syrian opposition widened, with rebel military commanders demanding a significant new role in the main exile organization.
The disparity underscored the fact that Mr. al-Assad appeared to be consolidating his position, buttressed on both military and political fronts by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, while the Western-backed opposition stumbles toward ever more serious disarray.
All week, the 63-member National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the main rebel group, has been entangled anew in petty disputes. Its leadership announced Thursday that it would boycott the peace conference.
It blamed the boycott on Iranian and Hezbollah interference in Syria, but analysts saw it as a position born of weakness and the inability to forge a strong, united bargaining front.
“This is a low point,” said Amr al-Azm, a Syrian-born history professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio who tracks the opposition. “Unlike earlier screaming matches, you have a bad military situation on the ground and Geneva is looming and the opposition has nothing to play. This is as bad as it gets.”
Russian officials had said earlier this week that the country would deliver the S-300 weapons to Syria, a move that Mr. al-Assad’s opponents said was a sign that neither Russia nor the Syrian government was serious about the proposed negotiations to end the Syrian civil war.
The interview with Mr. al-Assad was taped Tuesday, according to the Beirut news director of Iran’s English-language Press TV. That same day, Israel’s Defence Minister declared categorically that the missile system had not yet been delivered.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic constraints, said Thursday that the S-300 missile system does not just “come in a box” and that different elements would probably be delivered in stages. It is possible, he said, that some parts have arrived in Syria, but there is no indication at this stage that the system is anywhere near operational.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has raised the issue of the arms sales with the Russians, even as he and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, are trying to arrange a meeting between the Assad government and the rebels. Asked about the missiles and Israeli warnings that the deliveries of them would pose a threat to Israel, the State Department’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said Wednesday: “We support Israel’s ability to defend themselves, certainly, but we remain hopeful and remain committed to working toward a political transition. And that’s what our focus is here on Syria.”
Israel has lobbied Russia not to deliver the S-300 missiles to Syria. on Tuesday, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon warned that Israel would view such a move as a threat and that it could prompt an Israeli reaction.
“The deliveries have not taken place, I can attest to this, and I hope they do not,” Mr. Yaalon said. “If, by some fortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do.”
Three major Israeli newspapers reported on Thursday that Israel’s national security adviser recently told a group of European ambassadors that Israel’s red line regarding the S-300s was the point at which they become operational. The Israeli official, who requested anonymity, said that the S-300 was a “very advanced and complicated system” and that different functions could become operational at different times.