And the Oscar goes to...a terrorist group!

“You are president of the Syrian Republic. At the same time you are a loving husband and the father of three. How do you balance those responsibilities?”

Assad: “If you cannot succeed in your small duties, you cannot succeed in your larger duties”

Interviewer: “Have you ever thought of leaving your country for the sake of your family?”

“Never! Whenever you have any kind of reluctance, you will lose. You will lose not with your enemies; you will lose with your supporters!”

At The Last RefugeAssad, Sundance emphasizes these points:

CNN has intentionally broadcast a filtered version of this interview focusing on the “foreign invaders” perspective. However, pay close attention to the 06:15 point of the video above where Assad discusses President Trump and his policy, and how Assad (correctly) views Turkey as facilitating ISIS.

“We have hopes that this administration in the United States is going to implement what we have heard, taking into consideration that talking about ISIS doesn’t mean talking about the whole terrorism; ISIS is one of the products, al-Nusra is one of the products, you have so many groups in Syria but they are not ISIS – but they are al-Qaeda. They have the same background of the Wahhabi extremist ideology”. [ie. The Muslim Brotherhood]

Asked about cooperation with President Trump specifically, President Assad expands:

“In theory, yes. But practically not yet. Because there is no link between Syria and the United States on a formal level. Even their raids against ISIS which I have just mentioned, which are only a few raids, have been without the cooperation or consultation with the Syrian Army, or the Syrian government – which is illegal as we always say. So theoretically we share those goals, but practically – not yet.”

Do you have personal contact with the United States, direct or indirect:

“No. Not at all. Indirect we have so many channels but you cannot bet on private channels. It should be formal, that way we can talk about direct discussion with another government.”