Syria's al-Assad defiant in rare public speech

A defiant Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rallied a chanting and cheering crowd Sunday to fight the uprising against his authoritarian rule, dismissing any chance of dialogue with "murderous criminals" that he blames for nearlytwo years of violence that has left 60,000 dead.

In his first public speech in six months, Assad laid out terms for a peace plan that keeps himself in power, ignoring international demands to step down and pledging to continue the battle "as long as there is one terrorist left" in Syria.

"What we started will not stop," he said, standing at a lectern on stage at the regal Opera House in central Damascusa sign by the besieged leader that he sees no need to hide or compromise even with the violent civil war closing in on his seat of power in the capital.

The theatre was packed with his supporters who interrupted the speech with applause, cheers and occasional fist-waving chants, including "God, Bashar and Syria!"

The overtures that Assad offered a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution were reminiscent of symbolic changes and concessions offered previously in the uprising that began in March 2011. Those were rejected at the time as too little, too late.

The government last year adopted a constitution that theoretically allows political parties to compete with Assad's ruling Baath Party. It carried out parliamentary elections that were boycotted by his opponents.

Assad demanded that regional and Western countries must stop funding and arming the rebels trying to overthrow him.

"We never rejected a political solution ... but with whom should we talk? With those who have an extremist ideology, who only understand the language of terrorism? "Or should we negotiate withpuppets whom the West brought?" he asked.

"We negotiate with the master, not with the slave," he answered.

As in previous speeches and interviews, he clung to the view that the crisis was a foreign-backed plot and not an uprising against him and his family's decades-long rule.

"Is this a revolution and are these revolutionaries? By God, I say they are a bunch of criminals," he said.

He stressed the presence of religious extremists among those fighting in Syria, calling them "terrorists who carry the ideology of al-Qaeda" and "servants who know nothing but the language of slaughter."

He said the fighters sought to transform the country into a "jihad land."

Although he put up a defiant front, Assad laid out the grim reality of the violence, and he spoke in front of a collage of photos of what appeared to be Syrians killed in the fighting.

"We are now in a state of war in every sense of the word," Assad said, "a war that targets Syria using a handful of Syrians and many foreigners. It is a war to defend the nation."

He said Syria will take advice but not dictates from anyone a reference to outside powers calling on him to step down.

The speech, which was denounced by the West, including the U.S. and Britain, came amid stepped-up international efforts for a peaceful way out of the Syrian conflict. Previous efforts have failed to stem the bloodshed.

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Assad has spoken only on rare occasions since the uprising began, and Sunday's speech was his first since June. His last public comments came in an interview in November to Russian TV in which he vowed to "live and die" in Syria.

"He did not come across as a leader under siege, nor as a leader whose regime is on the verge of collapse," said Fawaz A. Gerges, head of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics.

"He seemed determined that any political settlement must come on his terms, linking those terms with the Syrian national interest as if they are inseparable," he said.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement that Assad's speech was "yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people's goal of a political transition."

Assads speech 'detached from reality'

Nuland also said Assad's latest plan is "detached from reality" and would only allow the regime to continue its oppression of the Syrian people.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called Assad's speech "beyond hypocritical." In a message posted on his official Twitter feed, Hague said "empty promises of reform fool no one."

Observers said the speech signalled the violence would continue indefinitely as long as both sides lacked the ability to score a victory on the battlefield.

Randa Slim, a research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, said Assad's made clear he has no intention of making way for a political transition.

"He sees himself rather as an orchestrator and arbiter of a process to be organized under his control," she said.

The Internet was cut in many parts of Damascus ahead of the address, apparently for security reasons, and some streets were closed.

At the end of his speech, loyalists shouted: "With our blood and souls we redeem you, Bashar!"

As he was leaving the hall, supporters pushed forward and swarmed around him to try to talk to him. Nervous security guards tried to push them away.

Many shouted "Shabiha forever!" referring to the armed regime loyalists whom rebels have blamed for sectarian killings.

Amid the melee, Assad quickly shook hands with some of them and blew kisses to others.