TEHRAN,YJC. For centuries UK has been playing an “unconstructive role” and meddling with the affairs in the region, the Syrian president said in a rare interview.
His remarks come amid pledges of direct "non-lethal” aid to the armed Syrian rebels from the UK and US.
Syrians do not believe that London can play a role in resolving the conflict unless their rhetoric changes, Assad said in an interview with The Sunday Times, adding that one "cannot separate the role from the credibility, and you cannot separate the credibility from the history of that country.”
"Britain has played famously – in our region – an unconstructive role in different issues for decades, some say for centuries,” the president told the newspaper.
"The problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of bullying and hegemony,” he said.
Britain is determined to militarize the problem not even trying to facilitate a dialogue between Syrians, Assad claimed.
Overall, Assad described his assessment of London’s role in the conflict as "working against the interests of the UK itself,” not only the interests of Syria and its people.
The Syrian leader reiterated he was open for talks with the opposition but said he would not step down unless the Syrian people decided so during next year’s presidential elections.
This week’s Friends of Syria meeting brought a serious shift of international policy towards supplying and arming the Syrian rebels.
Speaking at a meeting in Rome on Thursday, UK foreign minister William Hague stressed he has not ruled out the possibility of direct military aid in the future. "That will be an important decision, of course, and has its own risks, and that is why we haven't done that so far,” he said.
(RT)