Only some Kurds want federalism, he said, and pointed out that in areas where the idea of federalism was popular, Arabs are the majority population. “So how can you have Kurdish federalism while you have majority of Arabs?”
Assad made his comments in an interview with Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid newspaper published on Friday.
The system of government in Syria is dictated by the constitution, which is owned by the people of Syria, he said. So if the Kurdish population wants federalism, “they need to promote it among the Syrians,” said Assad. “I cannot give it to them. I don’t own it. I don’t own the political system in Syria.”
When asked about talks with opposition groups to bring an end to the civil war, Assad implied the negotiations were futile as the majority of the armed groups in Syria are terrorists who do not belong to a political movement.
“Who is going to influence the terrorists on the ground?” he asked. “Even if we negotiate with the political opposition, we cannot change the situation. So that’s the most important part of the problem… who am I going to deal with?”
Assad characterized the war in Syria as one aspect of American efforts to retain global influence, “not allowing anyone to be a partner on the political or international arena, whether Russia or even their allies in the West.”
He said Syria got dragged into this global conflict – which includes terrorism and security as well as politics and the military fight – because it is a Middle Eastern fault line due to its geographical position on the Mediterranean and its close ties with other regional countries, particularly Iran.
“Whatever happens in Syria will influence the region, negatively and positively, so controlling Syria is very important.”
He denounced Turkey’s “invasion” of Syria and accused Ankara of using the military incursion to distract from their support of ISIS and al-Nusra. “They made ISIS, they support ISIS… All the world knows this. But with this invasion, they wanted to change the package of ISIS, to talk about new moderate forces, which have the same grassroots of ISIS.”
But he is hopeful that the recent rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, healing the rift that grew between the two after Turkey shot down a Russian jet last year, will bring changes in Ankara’s Syrian policy, “to decrease the damage of the messing-up with the Syrian territory by the Turkish government.”
Komsomolskaya Pravda was established in Soviet times as the paper of the communist youth union. It is owned by Media Partner, whose parent company ESN Group has close ties with the Russian state-owned Gazprom.
