Assad: 'Time is needed' to beat rebels

BEIRUT -- In a striking admission, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast yesterday that his armed forces will need time to defeat the rebels and addressed the string of defections from his authoritarian regime.

The comments amounted to an acknowledgment that, even though the opposition lacks the government's tanks and airplanes, their tenacity and tactical creativity, combined with the military's struggle to fight on multiple fronts, have yielded a stalemate that could prolong the civil war with many more dead.

Syria's military has increasingly been stretched thin fighting on multiple fronts against rebels seeking to oust Assad. His forces have been unable to quell the rebellion as it spread to the capital, Damascus, with significant clashes that began in July, and to Syria's largest city, Aleppo, a few weeks later.

At the same time, the military is fighting smaller-scale battles in a string of other cities and towns.

With neither side making significant advances, the conflict is looking more like a war of attrition.

"We are fighting a regional and global war, so time is needed to win it," Assad said in an interview with the pro-regime private TV station Dunya. "We are moving forward. The situation is practically better but it has not been decided yet. That takes time," he told the station, majority owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Assad.

"If the armed forces wanted to use the entire range of its firepower, it can wipe out many areas. But this will be unacceptable," Assad said.

Assad also appeared to make light of the significant number of defections, some of them senior military and political officials, including the prime minister.

"Defections are a positive process. Generally, it is self-cleansing of the state and the nation," he said. "If there is a Syrian citizen who knows of someone who wishes to flee but is hesitant to do so he should encourage him," Assad said with a smile. "Whoever flees is either weak or bad. A patriotic or a good person does not flee."