JOIN USSyrian President Bashar Assad has criticised US and British aid to rebels and set harsh terms for talking to his opponents in a am interview published on Sunday, as fighting raged across the country.
On the battlefield, rebels made significant gains in the heavily contested northeastern Syrian, capturing a police academy complex west of Aleppo and storming the central prison in the city of Raqqa, as well as a border crossing along Syria’s frontier with Iraq, activists said.
Assad took a tough line against his opponents in the interview with London’s Sunday Times, dialing back earlier hints of flexibility about talks. He said he is ready for dialogue with armed rebels and militants, but only if they surrender their weapons.
“We are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms. We are not going to deal with terrorists who are determined to carry weapons, to terrorise people, to kill civilians, to attack public places or private enterprise and to destroy the country.”