The bizarre 'water bottle' interview with the Syrian president
In an interview with a Belarusian television station, the Syrian president referred to the Soviet victory over the Nazis; when the interviewer poured Assad some water, Assad responded: 'This water was drenched in the blood of the Syrian fighters.'
While Russia marked the anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II, Syrian President Bashar Assad referred to the subject in an interview with a Belarusian television station.
The interview, which was broadcast on Tuesday, began with a particularly bizarre act when the excited interviewer poured water for the Syrian president from a canteen.
It was the Syrian Presidential Office that released small segments of the interview. The interviewer held the canteen and poured Assad and himself some water, which according to him, were brought from a spring in the village of Ain al-Fijah, considered to be the main water source of the capital Damascus, which had only recently been reoccupied by the Syrian army from the rebels.
The interviewer told Assad that he wished there would be peace in Syria and that no Syrian family would suffer from water or food shortages. After taking a sip of the water, Assad said: "Water is wealth because it is a gift from God, but this water that you brought from the Ain al-Fijah Spring has added value because they were drenched in the blood of the Syrian fighters so that the water may return to every house in Damascus."
During the interview, Assad referred to World War II, complaining that "many in the West are trying to hide the important role played by the Soviet Union, including the Belarusian army, in defeating the Nazis during World War II."
According to him, the veteran fighters serve as an example for present and future generations in terms of the meaning of the term 'steadfastness.' Assad wondered: "Who would have expected the defeat of the Soviet army in the beginning to become a victory later? Had it not been for the victory of the Soviet army, the invasion of Normandy would not have taken place."
On this point, Assad made the connection to the present: "The Western countries are trying to demonize the image of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, because they are not subjecting themselves to the West," he said.
The Syrian president, whose deeds are compared from time to time by his opponents to the actions of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, even defined what he believes to be the new Nazism: "If the previous generations did not bend to Hitler, then the present generations should not bend to the new Nazism, which is Western colonialism in its modern form."
(Translated and edited by N. Elias)
