Assad says chemical weapons “a farce,” accuses Erdogan of “Muslim Brotherhood”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied that the Syrian Army used chemical weapons against civilians saying the videos from Douma were “a farce.” In an exclusive interview with Greek daily Kathimerini, he took aim at both  the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump.

Chemical attacks accusations are “fake”, Assad said adding that Syria gave up its chemical arsenal in 2013,  stressing that the “Western narrative started after the victory of the Syrian Army, not before.”

“When you use weapons of mass destruction in such an area [Douma], you should have hundreds or maybe thousands of victims. Why do all the chemical weapons – the presumed or supposed chemical weapons – only kill children and women? They don’t kill militants. If you look at the videos, it’s completely fake. I mean, when you have chemical weapons, how could the doctors and nurses be safe, dealing with the chemical atmosphere without any protective clothes, without anything, just throwing water at the victims, and the victims become OK just because you washed them with water. So, it’s a farce, it’s a play, it’s a very primitive play, just to attack the Syrian Army, because… “

He accused Erdogan of being “affiliated” with the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement. “Maybe he’s not organized, but his affiliation is toward that ideology, I call it this dark ideology,” Assad said and called Turkish troops “terrorists” over their intervention in Afrin.

“First of all, this is an aggression, this is an occupation. Any single Turkish soldier on Syrian soil represents occupation. […] The core issue of the Muslim Brotherhood anywhere in the world is to use Islam in order to take control of the government in your country, and to create multiple governments with this kind of relationship, like a network of Muslim Brotherhoods, around the world.”

Journalist Alexis Papachelas who took the interview, told Skai TV on Thursday morning that initially Assad had Erdogan was the leader of Muslim Brotherhood and that he later corrected.

As for Trump, who has called Assad an “animal,” the Syrian leader said it did not bother him “because I deal with the situation as a politician, as a president.”

“Does this language represent the American culture? That is the question. This is very bad, and I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s a community in the world that has such language. Second, the good thing about Trump is that he expresses himself in a very transparent way, which is very good in that regard. Personally, I don’t care, because I deal with the situation as a politician, as a president. It doesn’t matter for me personally; what matters is whether something would affect me, would affect my country, our war, the terrorists, and the atmosphere that we are living in.”

Talking about Syria’s allies, Assad said “of course they’re the Iranians and the Russians. They are our strongest allies, and of course China that supported us politically in the Security Council.”

Full interview in English here.