As the United States and its allies consider military action against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's government for allegedly using chemical weapons in an August strike that killed over 1,400 people Assad is accusing President Barack Obama of being weak and lacking any evidence of chemical weapon use in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro.
"Whoever accuses must provide proof. We have challenged the United States and France to provide the slightest proof," Assad told Le Figaro. "Obama and [French president Francois] Hollande have been incapable (of doing so) even to their own people."
On Friday President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry made the case for military intervention in the two-year-long civil war in Syria. Among the pieces of evidence presented to Congress and the American people were videos showing victims apparently suffering from what appeared to be a gas attack and records of rockets being fired from Assad's forces, according to the New York Times.
"Read for yourselves the evidence from thousands of sources," Kerry said. "This is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. This is what Assad did to his own people."
Assad found the accusation that his military used chemical weapons, especially given the circumstances and timing of the alleged attack, almost comical.
"Supposing our army wishes to use weapons of mass destruction," Assad told Le Figaro. "Is it possible that it would do so in a zone where it is located and where (our) soldiers were wounded by these arms, as United Nations inspectors have noted during visits to hospitals where they were treated? Where is the logic?"
The Syrian leader told the French newspaper that the entire Middle East could erupt into war if western powers were to attack his country. Assad contends that the forces his army faces are terrorists and that they have gone too far to even consider peace talks, according to the Telegraph.
"Whoever contributes to financially or militarily to bolstering terrorists is an enemy of the Syrian people," Assad told Le Figaro. "We are fighting terrorists. Eighty to 90 percent of those we are fighting belong to Al Qaeda. They are not interested in reform or in politics. The only way to deal with them is to annihilate them. Only then will we be able to talk about political measures."
Assad also explained to the French paper that he believes that the reason President Obama is considering military action is because of pressure to do so from within the United States, a sign that the American president is weak, according to the Telegraph.
"If Obama was strong, he would have said publicly: 'We have no evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian State,'" Assad told Le Figaro. "He would have said publicly: 'The only way to proceed is through United Nations investigations. We therefore refer everything to the Security Council.' But Obama is weak because he is facing pressure from within the United States."
The Syrian civil war is estimated to have killed over 100,000 since it began over two years ago. Millions of Syrians have fled the country to get away from the violence.
