In the interview he gave to Skynews-Arabic, Al-Assad could not present a narrative of the Syrian issue other than the one that the Syrians and those concerned with this issue have heard and witnessed so far. His main obsession in this interview was to appear strong, coherent, unafraid, and consistent with the narrative he has presented for over a decade. He even reached the point of saying that if he returned to 2011, he would do the same thing..
Appearing in this guise that necessitated wasting a golden opportunity, (and perhaps opportunities), that were prepared to give him the possibility of folding impossible bitter pages. And in order to achieve the goal of demonstrating strength, Assad found himself closing all doors on himself in a room full of poisonous gas, whose keys have disappeared by his own arrogance and schizophrenia.
He knows that the Syrian internal situation is exhausted and torn psychologically, socially and economically; and the peoples’ highest ambition is either to change the situation or to leave the country. He might have thought that his characterisation and dumping of those people as patriots defending their country may ease their minds and stop their pains. He; however, forgot that his special advisor said one day in a television interview that there is no credit or favor for these people in defending and sacrificing, because they are just defending themselves.
The appearance of strength necessitated Assad’s mentioning of Russia and Iran in passing; when they were responsible for keeping him in power. Moreover, had it not been for his fear of acknowledging their responsibility for his survival – as an admission of weakness – and because of fear of their reaction and anger, he would have repeated what some of his media mouthpieces said that Iran and Russia have their own interests in Syria; and Assad is the one who contributed to their being politically effective in the international arena. Hence, he focused on the decisive role of the people in his survival, ignoring the statements of the Russians and Iranians, that without them, he would have been finished .
In order to detach itself from reality, and to appear strong, the “regime” flouted a golden opportunity that Putin worked on to prepare for a rapprochement with Turkey, opening up horizons for him that would disrupt the weight and effectiveness of over ten million Syrians in and around Turkey.
The most dangerous door was the door of the Arabs, which prepared for Assad the historical opportunity to turn over a bitter, bloody page. He did so when he trivialised their steps and described their rapprochement as protocolic. He even stipulated that they should provide him with money as an atonement for the actions they committed against his Syria. And if they were seeking to deter the scourge of “Captagon” ravaging their country, they would be illusioned. He even implied their responsibility for the spread of drugs..
Due to the obsession with appearing strong, and in line with the “resistance” narrative, Assad considered that the Israeli targeting of Iranian sites in Syria as a targeting of Syria. There are leaks; however that his regime was behind leaking information about some specific sites, people, and meetings pertaining to Iran. However, the temptation of “targeting by Israel” made him consider the targeting of Syria to be “the strong, resisting force.”
The insistence on the same narrative in portraying what happened and is happening in Syria as a result of terrorism and a global conspiracy, and the tyranny’s disavowal of everything that happened, including drugs, is conclusive evidence of the elimination principle in a struggle that this regime considers an existential struggle: {Either the survival of the regime, or annihilation} in accordance with its main slogans: {Assad or no one} and {Assad or we burn the country}. Based on that, this regime considers that it won its bet, as Assad remained and the country was burned. What this regime doesn’t recognise is that the burning of the country burned the regime first, and turned it into a rotting corpse just awaiting burial.
We witnessed, in Al-Assad’s interview with the Emirati TV Station, a thunderous self-destructive speech without reason, rationality, or guidance. This interview was a golden opportunity, but it was missed. Perhaps it shocked the owners of the station as it shocked some of the silent people on the bank of the system itself. This came as a result of the balance of nature, which must intervene at a moment that we do not expect.
The most dangerous thing that happened in this scandalous interview, in which the head of the regime sought to prove his strength, is not only denied by the parties opposing to the regime, but by its own “incubator” whom he once called the “homogeneous” people, whose life has been strangulated and destroyed in order to remain in power with its juntas. As such, the Assad regime has made force the only way to open up this poisonous gas chamber in which it put Syria in. This will not be done by the Syrians who reject Assad only, but also by those affiliated with it (and here we are witnessing harbingers of that trend), but rather with support that goes beyond the interior, given that the Assad has become a threat that goes beyond the Syrian borders.
