Al Assad’s interview showed his detachment from reality

Bashar Al Assad's BBC is analysed in the Arabic-language media, including Al Mustaqbal, Al Hayat and Asharq Al Awsat.

After four years of war, Syrian president Bashar Al Assad remains divorced from reality. Photo: Fadi Al Halabi / AFP

In a few weeks time, the Syrian revolution will have completed its fourth year, but there is no end in sight to the conflict there.

Khairallah Khairallah, a columnist with the Lebanese daily Al Mustaqbal, said that as the fighting rages on, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Syria would remain a united entity.

“The situation has deteriorated significantly in Syria, where the Assad regime has been wagering for some time on maintaining its authority over part of Syrian territory,” he wrote. “The regime has been striving to change the nature of the demographic composition in the region that it intends to keep under its control, which includes the Syrian coast, Damascus, Homs and all the way into Lebanon.

“The main focus has been to reconfigure the so-called ‘regime state’ in a way that excludes Sunni citizens. This explains the forced sectarian displacement in Homs and its surroundings.” He wrote: “The future looks bleak for Syria. It is past the stage of salvation by means of a scheme akin to the one that rescued Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The Obama administration has left no viable option other than dismantling Syria,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, president Bashar Al Assad is as detached from reality as ever. This was demonstrated by his recent BBC interview, where the interviewer said Mr Al Assad came across as exceedingly cynical and in denial.

Hassan Haidar, writing in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, said that Mr Al Assad is truly uncaring about what happens to his people. He cares only about maintaining his territory, which he defends ruthlessly in the hope of deterring the opposition.

“Al Assad went past shame long ago. He doesn’t show any contrition about his crimes, even when the death toll has risen to over 200,000 people,” he wrote.

“Leaders that murder their people with such brutality don’t stop at numbers. In fact, the greater the number of casualties, the more hope he has for survival.”

Mr Al Assad spoke to the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen. He denied that Syria was a failed state “as long as the government and state institutions continue to carry out their duties towards the Syrian people”.

But what people does he speak of, the writer asked, and what duties? “If Syria isn’t a failed state, what are the militias of Hizbollah and the Iranian revolutionary guard doing in its territories? And why is Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, taking control of the regime’s war against opposition forces?”

The BBC interview was also the subject of an analytical piece by Abdul Rahman Al Rashed, a columnist in the London-based daily, Asharq Al Awsat.

“What we heard from Mr Al Assad in his last interview indicates that he is incapable of uttering the words ‘I admit’ and ‘I am sorry’,” he wrote.

“He refuses to admit his mistakes since the start of the revolution and he insists that he is protecting his people from terrorists.”

In truth, Mr Al Assad has never been able to see the error of his ways. His involvement in the assassination of Rafik Al Hariri, Lebanon’s former prime minister, and his mismanagement of Lebanese conflicts signalled the beginning of his isolation. The United Nations Security Council forced him to withdraw his forces from Lebanon and he lived the four years that followed fighting accusations and trying to overcome an international political siege.

“His disregard for human life and values, his indifference to regional and international powers led to his current situation: a hollow figure of a president, besieged in Damascus,” he concluded.

Translated by Racha Makarem