We begin with the death of the White Helmets' founder and the role of foreign intelligence agencies. The president of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, spoke about these and other topics in an exclusive interview by Russia-24 and RIA Novosti.
Yevgeny Poddubny met with the leader of the Arab republic. We'll find out all the details from him. He'll be reporting live.
- Hello, Yevgeny. What questions did you manage to discuss, and was it difficult to arrange the interview?
- Hello, Maria. First of all, I have to say that Bashar Al-Assad, the president of the Syrian Arab Republic, perhaps for the first time in many years gave such a candid and acute interview. We discussed probably the whole range of questions regarding the situation in the Middle East. All these questions are rather acute, and the whole world is discussing them now. We also talked about the Sochi agreements reached at the meeting between the Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Turkish President Recep Erdoğan. The Syrian President also commented on the situation in northeastern Syria, the negotiations between Damascus and the leaders of the Kurdish military formations, as well as the relations between Syria and the USA, and the American military presence in sovereign Syria.
And, of course, we couldn't hep but ask questions regarding the current agenda. For instance, the Syrian leader commented on the death of one of the founders of the White Helmets, an organization operating here in Syria. I must remind you that Syria strongly opposes the White Helmets organization. Multiple times the organization's activists have been proven guilty of waging information war in Syria while preparing fake videos about the use of chemical weapons, the alleged use of chemical weapons by the governmental forces in Syria. Many times, actually several dozen times, the organization has been proven guilty of blatant propaganda for the benefit of Western countries. I'll remind you that more than a year ago, the Americans even launched missiles at Syria using materials prepared by the White Helmets, and thanks to our channel's investigation, it was revealed that the video posted on YouTube featured actors, not professionals, but residents of the city of Douma, who were even paid after the end of the shooting.
Overall, it's a rather acute topic for the Syrian Arab Republic. I suggest watching a fragment of the exclusive interview, where the Syrian president comments on the death of one of the founders of this odious organization.
- Only recently, one of the founders of the White Helmets died in Istanbul. Multiple times, the organization has been proven guilty of full-scale video production activities. They produce fake videos of alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria. And there already are assumptions that one of the founders of the White Helmets didn't die naturally, but was murdered. What do you think happened in Istanbul?
Bashar Al-Assad, president of Syria: To avoid speaking about this incident separately, let's consider it together with similar ones. American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was killed several weeks ago, and they said that he committed suicide in prison. But he was killed, because he knew a lot of vital secrets regarding important persons in the UK, the USA, and probably in other countries. One of the main members of the White Helmets was in Germany, and he was killed in prison. They said he committed suicide. Now the main founder of the White Helmets is killed, and he's an officer who has worked all his life with NATO in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, and Lebanon. After that, he founded the White Helmets in Syria. So how is this person related to humanitarian activities he was said to do in the White Helmets? You and I know that they, of course, are part of Al-Qaeda. I suppose that these people, as well as the previously killed Bin Laden and Al-Baghdadi, were all killed, first of all, because they knew important secrets. They became a burden after they'd played their roles. After they'd played their roles, an acute need to get rid of them arose. That's why, if we look at all these episodes together, like a panoramic picture, we won't believe that they committed suicide or died of natural causes.
All the people I named, and maybe others who I didn't mention now, were killed upon accomplishing their missions so that the truth died together with them. Why were Al-Baghdadi and Bin Laden killed? Probably because, if they were alive, they'd tell the truth in certain circumstances. The founder of the White Helmets might have been working on a book of his memories and life, and it's unacceptable. It's an assumption, but a very serious one, because any other assumptions seem unconvincing to me now.
- So you think that Western intelligence agencies are behind the death of the former British MI6 officer?
- Of course, it's the work of intelligence agencies. But which ones? When we speak about Western intelligence agencies in general, Turkish and some others in our region, those aren't agencies of sovereign countries, those are divisions of the main intelligence agency, CIA. That's the truth. And they all obey one master and work in cooperation with each other. So it's highly probable that the Turkish intelligence agencies did that at the command of foreign agencies. Once again, it's just an assumption, but it's a usual interaction between Western intelligence agencies or those who work for them.
Maria, I should emphasize that this might be the first statement from one of the world leaders about the death of one of the founders of the odious organization, the White Helmets, in Istanbul. Naturally, a large portion of questions was dedicated to the relations between Damascus and Washington. They have almost no relations, but the American military presence in Syria remains, despite the fact that the US President Donald Trump claimed that the American troops will be withdrawn from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. However, after that, he said rather frankly that the Americans will stay in Syria to guard oil. We asked the president what he thinks about the fact that American troops have virtually captured Syrian oil reservoirs.
- In light of the US actions, I mean, first of all, the situation with Syrian oil, don't you think that it's actually state banditry? And what economic losses will Syria suffer due to Washington's actions?
- You said it perfectly. Not only because they steal oil, but because the USA is a state built as a political regime based on criminal gangs. American President doesn't symbolize the country. He's just an executive director of a company, with a board of directors behind his back. The board, in its turn, represents large American companies who actually own the country. Those are oil companies, arms manufacturers, banks, and other lobbies. As for oil, it's the result of the existence of the American system authorities. The USA is not a state, it's a regime, whose authorities are assigned by companies that work for their own benefit. I'd like to draw your attention to one point that is more serious than the definition of the USA as a state of bandits. One of the crucial factors that made Hitler attack the USSR in WWII was oil. Some say that oil was the only factor, and that there were no other reasons to attack the USSR. Nowadays, the USA does the same thing, copying the Nazis. Simply speaking, we can compare the current American policy to that of the Nazis. Expansion, invasions, undermining the interests of other nations, violating international law and humanitarian principles, and so on. And all of that is just for oil. What's the difference between this policy and the Nazi methods? Can anybody from the American system give us an answer to this question? I think not.
A big part of the interview is dedicated to the current relations between Damascus and the leaders of the Kurdish military formations that operate in northeastern Syria. We'll speak about it in more detail in the full interview with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad that will go on air tomorrow. I should say that, apart from political questions, we managed to ask the Syrian leader some personal ones, but we'll speak about it later.
- You ended your report on the most interesting part, as always, Yevgeny. Thank you. Watch the full exclusive interview by Russia-24 and RIA Novosti on our channel tomorrow after 10 a.m.
