Syria’s Assad sees no peace for Middle East

Giving his first speech on the Lebanon crisis, Syria’s President has said that peace in the Middle East will remain elusive for the foreseeable future – and that the United States is to blame. Bashar al-Assad claimed the latest fighting in Lebanon had been planned by Israel for some time as part of an aggressive US-sponsored policy.

“The war has nothing to do with the capture of the two soldiers. This is recognised by the world,” he told a gathering of journalists in Damascus. “There is a pre-planned scheme and whoever fails to see this fact, after all the clear events, has a problem with their vision.”

There were also strong words for the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanon who President Assad accused of wanting to provoke a rebellion in the country by asking Hizbollah to lay down its arms.

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