BEIRUT — President Bashar Assad of Syria said in an excerpt from a television interview broadcast Wednesday that his government’s battle against opposition forces would need “time” and had not yet been resolved, in what appeared to be a sober assessment of the resilience of the armed insurgency and the limits of a military hobbled by a steady stream of defections.
But Assad also praised the heroism of his army, apparently seeking to bolster public faith that, despite 18 months of rebellion and a crackdown that has made his government an international pariah, he had not lost his will to prevail.
“We are moving forward,” Assad said. “The situation, practically, is better.”
The Syrian president made his comments in excerpts from an interview that will broadcast in full Wednesday night on a private Syrian television station.
He criticized foreign powers, especially Turkey, where officials have raised the possibility of outside intervention in Syria. He dismissed a proposal floated by Turkey and other nations to create buffer zones inside Syria as unrealistic.
“Will we go backward because of the ignorance of some Turkish officials?” he said.
Assad dismissed defectors who had fled Syria, saying that “patriotic, good people” would not leave the country.
And with a chuckle, he dismissed persistent rumors that he had gone into hiding, saying that he was conducting the interview in the presidential palace in Damascus.
The interview comes after days of fierce fighting in the capital’s suburbs, including in the city of Daraya, where hundreds of people were said to have been killed over the past week as the army tried to rout armed opposition fighters who made a base in the city.
Opposition activists said at least 11 people were killed in fighting in the eastern suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday, where the government has said it is pursuing “cleansing” operations.
