PARIS, February 12 /TASS/. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in an exclusive interview with the AFP news agency on Friday said there was a risk of Turkish and Saudi Arabian military intervention into Syria.
"The intervention of these countries is a probability which I cannot exclude for the reason that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is known for his intolerance. He is a radical who supports the Muslim Brotherhood [Islamist movement] and lives with a dream of restoring the Ottoman Empire," Assad said.
"It is also true of Saudi Arabia. Anyway, these actions will not be easy for them. We will certainly give them a resolute rebuff," the Syrian president told AFP.
He said the main task of the Syrian army offensive on Aleppo was not to take the city under full control but cut off supply lines with neighboring Turkey for terrorists who are operating in [Aleppo] province and are using them (the routes) to replenish their stocks.
Assad told AFP that he was ready to conduct peaceful talks and simultaneously fight terrorists.
"We have fully believed in the need of negotiations and political actions ever since the crisis started. However, the fact of conducting talks does not mean that we are going to stop fighting against terrorism. Both directions of our activities are of great importance for Syria: one direction is of no relation to the other," the Syrian president said.
Assad has categorically denied the war crimes accusations launched by the UN and Western powers as politicized and groundless.
"Western powers predominate in UN institutions. Most of their reports are politicized and contain no evidence," Assad said.
Therefore, Assad said, he is not concerned with any of the accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"That is exactly why I am not afraid of these threats or allegations," the Syrian president told AFP when asked about his attitude to a possible international trial over him.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has demanded that the European Union create conditions for Syrian refugees, who were forced to flee the civil war, to return home.
"I am urging the European governments, who contributed directly to this exodus [of refugees] by covering terrorists and imposing an embargo on Syria, to create conditions for these Syrian refugees to return home," the Syrian president said in an exclusive interview with the AFP news agency on Friday.
He pledged to retake the occupied Syrian territory from terrorists.
"It would be illogical to declare that there is a part of [Syrian] territory, which we are ready to give up," the Syrian president told AFP.
Asked if the Syrian government could regain the entire territory of Syria, President Assad said: "Irrespective of whether we are capable of doing it or not, it is the goal, which we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation."