DAMASCUS, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that what is happening in his country is not a "revolution," adding the real revolution would be purely domestic and unrelated with foreign agendas.
Assad's remarks were made during an interview with the state- run al-Thawra newspaper to mark its 50th anniversary.
"Take many examples on that; the French revolution, the Russian revolution and even the Iranian one. Real revolutions are popular ones that have purely internal factors, have a spontaneous aspect and led by ideological and intellectual elites," he said.
"Whereas what has been happening in Syria, since the beginning, has the foreign factor in it, and that was what they have tried to conceal but today become absolutely clear," he added.
The embattled leader, whose country has been gripped by more than two years of deadly conflict, said that the "conspirator countries on Syria have used all they have of material, morale and psychological means against Syria and have nothing left but direct intervention."
While hailing the Syrian people, Assad said that "tolerance is essential in resolving national crises but it must be popular, not official."
He, meanwhile, likened terrorism to cancer, saying that if terrorism wasn't removed, it could spread quickly "so we must root it out, not only hit it."
He charged that what is currently happening is "turning Syria into a land of terrorism," adding that terrorism "grows and multiplies in the fertile soil called chaos, where you see the chaos you see terrorism grows automatically."
He noted that what have drawn in terrorism in Syria wasn't only the chaos, but also the foreign countries backing terrorism in Syria.
Regarding the deteriorating economic situation in Syria, the president said that with a troubled security situation, there can be no good economy "and thus the security problem is affecting us directly, whether we like it or not."
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