Syrian President Assad claims 'major victories' in ongoing conflict
While it seemed that neither side in the Syrian civil war was making headway against the other, it now appears, at least according to Syrian state media, that the government may have the upper hand. Speaking in an interview Thursday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that “the balance of power” in the two-year conflict was now in the hands of the government.
The Syrian civil war, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 80,000 people and displaced millions, has seen intense fighting over its duration, but neither the Syrian government nor the Syrian opposition appears to be gaining any considerable advantage over the other. Recent clashes saw government troops storm the border town of Qusayr along with the help of Hezbollah fighters.
Speaking to the al-Manar TV channel, Assad said the Syrian forces had won many "major victories" recently, being quoted as saying, "The Syrian army has scored major victories against armed rebels on the ground and the balance of power is now with the Syrian army."
Assad also said that Syria was expecting its first cache of a new Soviet missile defense system, which, as Russia said earlier in the week, would be delivered to the country as part of a previously signed contract between the two countries. Speaking about Hezbollah’s involvement in the conflict, Assad said, "Hezbollah fighters are deployed along the Lebanese-Syrian borders but the operations are conducted by the Syrian army until the 'terrorist' groups are crushed.”
Speaking in Istanbul, military chief of the Free Syrian Army, Gen. Salim Idriss, appealed to the international community, saying that Hezbollah fighters, of which there were apparently 7,000 taking part in Qusayr’s siege, were “invading” the country and that if the city were to fall, its 50,000 residents would be at risk of a “massacre.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Syrian National Council, George Sabra, also speaking from Istanbul, responded to questions of the forthcoming international peace conference that is to be held in Geneva in June. Sabra said it was “farcical” to consider the conference while the Syrian government continued with its crimes.
The conference itself, being organized by Russia and the United States and which the Syrian government has agreed to attend, will seek to implement a United Nations-backed proposal that will see the formation of an interim government consisting of both Assad’s regime and the opposition and will call for an immediate end to the fighting.
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