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DAMASCUS: Syria's President Bashar alAssad blamed foreign plotters on Tuesday for the deadly 10month-old protests against his regime and vowed to crush their 'terrorism' with an iron fist.
The Syrian National Council (SNC), the largest opposition umbrella group, branded Assad's rare speech an 'incitement to violence' that pushes the country closer to a civil war.
In the speech just hours before the UN Security Council was to discuss Syria, Assad denied security forces had orders to fire on civilian protesters, even as activists reported regime gunmen killed 13 more civilians.
Assad said the unrest, which the United Nations estimated last month has cost more than 5,000 lives since March, would only come to an end 'when the flow of funds and weapons coming from abroad stops'. 'Regional and international parties who are trying to destabilise Syria can no longer falsify the facts and events,' the embattled leader said in the televised speech that lasted almost two hours.
Assad said restoring security was the 'absolute priority' for Syria and pledged his government would tackle terrorism with an 'iron fist', after a Damascus suicide bombing killed 26 people on Friday.
"There can be no let-up for terrorism it must be hit with an iron fist," he said. "The battle with terrorism is a battle for everyone, a national battle, not only the government's battle."
In Istanbul, the head of the opposition SNC, Burhan Ghalioun, expressed alarm about Assad's 'dangerous speech in which he stated his determination to use violence against our own people'.
'He has cut short any Arab or other initiative to find a solution to the crisis and avoid the worst,' Mr Ghalioun said, adding that the speech showed Mr Assad's determination to divide and push the country towards civil war.
Mr Ghalioun called on the world community to work to ensure the international protection of Syrian civilians as soon as possible, while urging the Arab League to turn to the UN Security Council for help.
Basma Qadmani of the SNC told the same news conference that Assad's speech was an 'incitement to violence' that dismissed the international community and marked a turning point in Syria's relations with the Arab League.
"This is a turning point, a rupture with its Arab environment," she said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces shot dead at least 13 civilians on Tuesday, including 10 youths at a peaceful demonstration in Deir Ezzor, northeast Syria.
An Observatory activist in Deir Ezzor said what he witnessed today was a real massacre, the Britain-based group said in a statement sent to AFP in Nicosia.
"Most of the martyrs were youths who were demonstrating peacefully and in a civilised manner" it said, adding regime gunfire killed two more civilians in the central protest hub of Homs and an army deserter in Idlib.
But Assad insisted security personnel had no orders to shoot. By law, nobody can open fire, except in selfdefence. He said he remained optimistic despite the violence.
"These past 10 months, despite all their hardships, were very beneficial. I am confident about the future," he said.
Assad hit out at the Arab League, which has had an observer mission in Syria since December 26 charged with overseeing a deal to end the violence, involving the withdrawal of troops from urban areas and the opening of talks with the opposition.-AFP
