ANALYSING ASSAD

On Wednesday 13 July, my favourite journalist, Bill Neely finally achieved one of the things he had desired most - an interview with President Bashar Al-Assad. After visiting Syria at least ten times, requesting each time and being refused, he finally got his wish. After talking many times to Assad's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisel Mekdad, he finally got a chance to question the man at the top. This is what I thought of both the questions from Bill and the answers from Assad. And remember: I am just a viewer with an opinion. So here goes. 

An interview with a world leader can go either exceptionally well or very very badly. For instance, had Bill ever asked some of the questions he asked here to someone like, say for example, Kim Jong-Un, I suspect he would have ended up in the gulag or worse, probably executed.

This interview was neither good nor bad. It was somewhere in the middle. Or, to use an old saying, "It fell between two Chippendale stools".

The first mistake was NBC calling this an exclusive. Exclusive usually means no-one has ever done this before. Except plenty of people had. Including the BBC's brilliant reporter Jeremy Bowen, for which he won the RTS award.

 It was pretty clear from the start that Assad had praise for Russia and Vladimir Putin. It was also equally clear that he had contempt for The United States, no matter who was in charge. But lets elaborate. 

Bill asked him how long it would take to win the war and as usual, like Faisel Mekdad before him, he said it would only take a few months, which is clearly nonsense.. Bill challenged him on that very fact as it was clearly a ridiculous statement.

He claims that when he asked President Putin for help in defeating the "terrorists", the Russian leader didn't ask anything of him in return. Which sounds fantastic, but also sounds completely implausible. Bill then said, "So, you owe President Putin...a lot?" Assad's answer was that he didn't owe him (Putin) anything, because other countries have helped in their own way. too. And the deal was of mutual values and in the interests of the Russian people. Which is odd because at one point even Putin allegedly told Assad it was time he should step down.  Yep, even his closest ally was getting fed up with him! And the only reason Putin even cares about Assad is the access it gives the Russians to their warm water ports. Not that Assad is ever likely to admit that. 

Assad also said that other countries should basically butt out. He said Syrian issues should be decided by the Syrians, and if the Syrians "want me to go, then I will go now, today". And he didn't approve of American airstrikes, saying they were illegal and counter-productive. He also said the Americans didn't have any good intentions towards Syria and their credibility was at an all-time low in the world. OUCH! He said he didn't care what the Americans want, only what the Syrians want.  

Of course talking of the Americans, led Bill to ask about Donald Trump and the US Election. This I am afraid to say is where Bill fell down, not in a major way, but he really over-played the election thing. He asked Assad about Obama leaving and about Trump possibly (God help us!) coming in. President Assad made it clear up-front that he wasn't interested, "It means nothing to us!", and yet Bill kept pushing even though Assad had made his view very clear. Bill then tried the same thing with Hilary and still got the same answer. He asked Assad if he intended warning the United States if a missile was going to hit them. His answer was, "In principle", which I think really means no. The one thing Assad did say in the Trump conversation was. "Richness is diversity" and that Trump shouldn't be spouting such racist rhetoric. That is one thing Assad and I agree on.  Of course, he also asked Assad what he hoped the relationship would be with the future President, which to me was irrelevant because there isn't a new President, yet. 

Now, Bill confronted him on some of the terrible things that had happened in his country. Assad basically denied it, even though Bill said he had seen some of it himself. Bill pressed him about the use of sieges and indiscriminate killing of civilians. Assad said that no-one had any proof, even though it had been witnessed by organisations like the U.N, the Red Cross, the UNHCR and of course Bill himself. Speaking of journalists, this is the point in the interview where I finally wanted to scream, and Bill began to lose his composure too. This is why:

Bill talked to him about the fact that the family of American Reporter Marie Colvin, who was a great friend of Bill and someone I admired too, were filing a lawsuit against the Syrian Government for her death, claiming that she and her friends in the media centre house were being deliberately targeted. It was something her best friend Paul Conroy , a photo-journalist for The Times has always believed and still does. Bill's question was straight to the point: Did your forces target Marie Colvin and her colleagues with the intention of killing her [and presumably her colleagues]? 

Assad said that his forces didn't even know of Marie Colvin's existence. What?? He followed this up with. "She came illegally to Syria and (I quote) "worked with" the terrorists. And then the bit that really made me want to scream abuse at my laptop: "Because she came illegally, she was responsible for everything that befell her!" He was kidding, right? No, he wasn't. He dropped himself in it though, by saying that lots of journalists came to Syria illegally and they didn't die, so why would they target this person? Which is exactly the point Bill was trying to get across. Why did he target Marie? I couldn't believe it! His forces effectively murder her and Remi Ochlick and all he says is he didn't know she was there, or even acknowledges her existence. As a fellow journalist and someone who admired Marie a lot, I really felt angry that not only could he not take responsibility for the death of his own people, but won't take responsibility for slaughtering journalists either.

Bill's interviewing style changed after that. He didn't hold back. He said Assad - through his words - gave the impression that "he feels he bears no responsibility to the things done - in HIS name - to the Syrian people". He basically kept saying the equivalent of, "Not my fault" and "This is war, people die". Bill asked if he'd seen pictures of children in rebel held areas, only to basically get back that there is no proof they were even in those areas. Assad had casually shrugged off the fact that an estimated 400,000 people had died in his country.  Bill's outburst of, "See! There you go again!" every time Assad denied something, clearly showed that Bill was very wound up. This is not a criticism, though, because by this time, I was just as wound up.

Bill said, "You know what the first draft of history is saying: that you are a brutal dictator with blood on your hands. How do you think people will remember you?"

Assad said, "I hope people with remember me as a Patriot who tried to save his country"

Basically, President Bashar Assad is a man who is confident of his power and that he is staying exactly where he is.  He is equally sure that he is not responsible for anything, only that what he does is for the good of his country. He came across as a very intelligent, and very charming man. He batted Bill's questions very well, but equally Bill was very good at pushing back, determined to try and get Assad to take responsibility for what are believed by many to be war crimes.

All in all this interview was interesting and gave an insight into how Assad feels about his Presidency, his staying power and about the war itself. And Bill Neely did an excellent job.

NBC's Bill Neely and President Assad