Agence France Presse ARABNEWS

DAMASCUS: A defiant President Bashar Assad rejected on Thursday calls he seek a safe exit, vowing he would “live in Syria and die in Syria,” as fighting raged in Damascus.

“I am not a puppet. I was not made by the West to go to the West or to any other country,” Assad said in English in an interview with Russian state-backed RT television.

“I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria,” he said, according to transcripts posted on RT’s website.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron floated the idea of granting Assad safe passage from the country, saying it “could be arranged,” although he wanted the Syrian leader to face international justice.
Assad also warned against a foreign intervention in Syria’s escalating conflict, saying such a move would have global consequences and shake regional stability.

“We are the last stronghold of secularism and stability in the region… it will have a domino effect that will affect the world from the Atlantic to the Pacific,” the transcript said.

In a separate video extract of the interview, Assad added: “The price of this invasion, if it happens, is going to be big, more than the whole world can afford.”

Many in Syria’s opposition, including rebels waging fierce battles with pro-regime forces, have urged world powers to intervene to stop the escalating bloodshed.

Fighting continued on Thursday, with mounting violence in Damascus seeing rebels again clashing with troops, and as the Red Cross said it was struggling to cope with the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Fresh fighting broke out overnight in the southern neighborhood of Qadam and in Mazzeh in the west, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

It said that, in and around Damascus alone, 59 civilians, rebels and soldiers were killed on Wednesday. A total of 133 died across the country.

In recent days, rebels have stepped up their attacks on Assad’s power base in the capital. On Wednesday, they shelled Mazzeh 86, a district mainly populated by members of Assad’s Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

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