In an interview with Portuguese State TV, President Assad has put out a series of claims about Syria’s four-year conflict:

*”The West has exaggerated the numbers of deaths.”
*”The people are unified behind their government and their army and fighting terrorism and still have institutions working.”
*”The role of the Syrian Army, like any national army, is to protect every single citizen, regardless of his affiliation, religion, sect, ethnicities, and so on.”
*”Even Obama said the moderate opposition is a fantasy.”

See Syria Video: Assad Interview with Portuguese State TV — “We Don’t Have A Failed State”

So who is responsible for the “exaggerated” deaths since the uprising began in March 2011? Assad repeated his blame of “terrorists”, but he also added the entire international community:

his is a failure of the international system, this international system that’s been represented by the United Nations and the Security Council, and that is supposed to solve the problems and protect the sovereignty of different countries and prevent war. Actually, it has failed in doing so. So, what we have now is a failed United Nations; failed to protect international citizens including in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and in other countries.

Assad maintained that he would talk with “any opposition that works for the Syrian, defending its country, represents Syrians, or is part of the Syrian population”. However, he said past negotiations — such as the regime’s short-lived, ill-fated talks with opposition groups in Geneva in early 2014 — were illegitimate because “it wasn’t a Syrian opposition that we made dialogue with. It was chosen by the West, by Turkey, by Saudi Arabia, by Qatar.”

He argued that the way forward was the regime’s “reconciliation” strategy with local groups in opposition-held areas.