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Western officials criticize Damascus in public but secretly deal in private not to upset US – Assad
Western politicians have been forced into the awkward position of being obliged to negotiate with Damascus over security under the table in fear of raising Washington’ ire, Syria’s president told Australia’s SBS News in an exclusive interview.“They attack us politically and then they send officials to deal with us under the table, especially the security, including your [the Australian] government,” Bashar Assad told SBS News reporter Luke Waters.
“They don’t want to upset the United States,” the Syrian leader said. “Actually most of the Western officials only repeat what the United States want them to say. This is the reality,” Assad said in an interview filmed in Damascus that took two years of negotiations to arrange.
Ahead of airing the interview with President Assad, SBS also interviewed Australia’s former ambassador to Syria, Bob Bowker, who denied the Syrian leader’ claims, saying that “The reality is that Assad is seen in the West as an unfit leader to be dealt with,” while adding that Assad has “lost the credibility” in “the rest of the Arab world.”
SBS quotes Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has called Bashar Assad a “murderous tyrant,” as well as the nation’s opposition leader, Bill Shorten, who has described Syria’s president a “butcher.”
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Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=12430
