Syria's Assad 'will not go' like Yanukovych: Russian official
AFP , Monday 7 Apr 2014
A former Russian prime minister who recently met Bashar al-Assad said Monday
the Syrian president told him he would not flee like the deposed Ukrainian
president Viktor Yanukovych.
"The Syrian president told me: 'Tell Putin that I am no Yanukovych and that
I will not go,'" Sergei Stepashin told reporters in Moscow after meeting the
Syrian president last week.
Assad was referring to Moscow-backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych
who was ousted by a pro-European popular uprising in February and fled to
Russia.
"Unlike Yanukovych, he has no enemies in his inner circle... and he
certainly knows what he is doing," Stepashin said.
Stepashin, who served a brief stint as prime minister in 1999, said Assad
also told him that he expected much of the fighting to be over by the end of
this year.
"Within this year the active phase of military action in Syria will be
over," Stepashin quoted Assad as saying.
"Afterwards we will be forced to switch to what we've been doing all the
time: fighting terrorists and suicide bombers."
Stepashin said he met Assad in one of his residences.
Assad "is in top athletic form," said Stepashin, who heads a charitable
organisation called the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian society.
Since the outbreak of a revolt against Assad in March 2011, Russia has
provided political, military and financial backing to the Syrian leader's
regime.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people and forced nearly half the
population to flee their homes.
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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