Assad says ‘overwhelming majority’ of Syrian people support him

As the head of the UN observer mission to Syria said that the violence there has reached unprecedented levels, President Bashar Assad boasted of his people’s love for him.

An “overwhelming majority” of the Syrian people are behind him and the Syrian civil war is not a revolution but a “fight against terrorism” that will be won, Assad asserted in an interview published Thursday in the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet.

Cumhuriyet has released excerpts of an extensive interview with Assad over the last several days.

Differentiating himself from the Shah of Iran, who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979 despite support from the West, Assad said he had the support of the people.

“No power, however mighty it is, can defeat a genuine revolution of the people,” he said, according to Reuters. “But we are now waging war with terrorist groups, not the people.”

Assad further asserted that Syria was threatened by Islamic fighters sent from other Arab countries, the West and Turkey, who were trying to “break up” the country or start a civil war.

But the UN observer mission chief said that the violence in the country was so bad that there must be a ceasefire in order for his teams to resume their work.

About 300 UN monitors were sent to Syria to provide an unbiased look at the violence, but they have been confined to their hotels since June 15 because of the bloodshed.

“The escalation of violence, allow me to say, to an unprecedented level, obstructed our ability to observe, verify, report as well as assist in local dialogue,” Norwegian Maj. Gen. Robert Mood told reporters Thursday in the Syrian capital Damascus.

More than 14,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, according to activists. As the conflict grinds on, the violence has become widespread and chaotic. Besides the government crackdown on dissent, rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaeda or other extremists are joining the fray.

Syria severely restricts the media in the country, making it difficult to gain a credible account of events on the ground.

More than 200,000 Syrians have so far fled the country overland, seeking refuge in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Meanwhile on Thursday, the secret-spilling group WikiLeaks said it was in the process of publishing material from a trove of 2.4 million emails from Syria.

WikiLeaks’s Sarah Harrison told journalists at London’s Frontline Club Thursday that the emails reveal interactions between the Syrian government and Western companies.