Damascus, SANA – Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said there is a real decision on the Syrian state’s part to “cut off every hand that has exploited and taken advantage of the war” be it those on the opposition or the pro-government side and those who took up arms or who did not.
Speaking to the Syrian TV in an interview on Thursday, al-Zoubi pointed out that the war waged against Syria is not simple, but rather “complicated and systemized” and the battle the country is fighting is “long and continuous”.
He said the major two elements in the battle are the military institution and the sturdiness of the internal front, assuring that the Syrians’ morale is quite high.
Al-Zoubi called on this internal front to show awareness and act with responsibility to face “the war of rumors” and not be influenced by whatever misinformation and lies that spread on media outlets.
He said the intensified activity of spreading rumors by hostile sides indicates their feeling of frustration as they have failed to “break the will of the Syrian people.”
He noted that the Syrian citizen was on top of the components of the Syrian state to be targeted by the systematic approach of the war, with this targeting carried out through the flood of misinformation, fabricated news, rumors and fatwas circulated by many TV stations and media experts and practiced even by political figures from various Western and Arab countries.
Commenting on the situation in the cities of Idleb and Jisr al-Shughour, where a large-scale terrorist assault was launched recently, al-Zoubi said thousands of terrorists have entered the two cities across the Turkish border equipped with advanced weapons and backed by Turkish fire coverage, adding that the army, in its response to the assault, has preferred to put the civilians’ safety above every other consideration and not destroy the two cities and turn them into a battlefield.
Asked about the situation in Yarmouk Camp, in southern Damascus city, which came under an attack by terrorists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Minister affirmed that the Syrian army will not enter the neighborhood, yet it will not allow the terrorists out of it.
It is the Palestinian factions who are facing the terrorists in the neighborhood and they are doing so in defense of the Palestinian and Syrian residents alike, he said.
Reem/Haifa Said