by Staff Reporter
May 15, 2013 (TSR) – Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said Monday that the armed rebels in Syria have two options “return to where they came from, or to be killed”.
The minister’s remarks came during a session of the ministerial committee tasked with implementing the political program outlined by President Bashar al-Assad recently.
According to the state-run SANA news agency, al-Halqi stressed that the Syrian people are determined to combat terrorism and restore security and stability to Syria.
He added that two options remain for the “mercenary terrorist groups” either to “return to where they came from, or be killed by the Syrian armed forces,” indicating that the “government’s doors are wide open to whoever wants to return to the right path”.
The Syrian government has repeatedly said that thousands of foreign fighters affiliated with Jihadi groups are fighting in Syria alongside rebels.
Haitham al-Maleh, a leading opposition figure in exile, said recently that a total of 12,000 foreign fighters have joined the rebels in Syria.
Meanwhile, al-Halqi reiterated that the government is serious, honest and open to all political and social and opposition forces inside and outside Syria which believe in the national solution, indicating that the Syrian gunmen are becoming convinced that a major conspiracy is at play in Syria.
The Political Arena has changed: Assad Government is winning
Information Minister, Omran al-Zoubi said on Friday that ”the change on the political arena, as was evident in the meeting between the Russian foreign minister and his US counterpart, was primarily prompted by the defeat of the armed terrorist groups on the ground.”
Meeting the international delegation for peace who were visiting Damascus on Friday, al-Zoubi said that the events in Syria ”proved that al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra are intelligence arms of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”
He saw that Turkey provides haven for terrorism as the government of the Justice and Development party, headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is part of the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda political wing.
Al-Zoubi considered that ”Some western states hold no respect for their peoples or history as they cannot speak of their past as separable from Syria’s religious, geographical and cultural history,” indicating that the French and UK foreign ministers are providing weapons for terrorists who are demolishing churches and mosques.”
He added that Syria is ‘the last remaining secular state in the region,” adding that ”protecting it is not the duty of the Syrian state only, but is a cultural, international and global one.”
Al-Zoubi added that the Syrian Arab army is fighting thousands of gunmen from non-Syria nationalities, indicating that ”Syria could have eliminated terrorists right from the beginning, but it would have cost hundreds of unarmed civilian lives.”
Al-Zoubi said that certain countries and regimes are involved in funding and arming terrorists in Syria, affirming that the Syrian state was ”torn between terrorism on the one hand and the political and economic pressures by Western and Arab countries on the other.”
He indicated that media was a decisive factor in the war waged on Syria as ”large part of what the world saw on TV channels and world newspapers was pure fabrications , pointing to the pressure put on the national media as the ”the broadcast of Syrian TV channels was stopped.”
The information minster reviewed the losses inflicted upon the Syrian media sector that surpassed SYP 2.5 billion due to terrorists attacks.
The international delegation for peace wrapped up its visit to Syria on May 10.
