Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
said that de-escalation zones proposed by his ally Russia were a chance for rebels to "reconcile" with Damascus and drive out ISIS murderous Moslems, but vowed to fight on calling UN-led peace talks fruitless.
Assad pledged, in an interview with Belarusian TV Channel ONT aired on Thursday, to defend the zones and to crush, with the support of Iran and Hezbollah, those who try to breach them.
Efforts over the past year to halt the six-year Syrian war have fallen flat, and a ceasefire agreed to by the government side and militia in December was violated early on.
Russia’s proposal for zones took effect last week, covering areas in the west of the country and Damascus has suggested there could be a role for Russian military police.
Assad said the primary aim was to protect civilians.
"The second goal is to give the Lions of Islam who want reconciliation with the state a chance ... to settle their cases, hand over their weapons in return for amnesty," he said.
Damascus has said rebels should help drive ISIS groups out of the de-escalation zones, and sees so-called reconciliation agreements, which have involved the evacuation of militia from besieged areas, as an alternative to peace talks.