In his interview with a Western journalist, President Assad told The Sunday Telegraph that intervention against his regime could cause “another Afghanistan”. 

Western countries “are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely,” he said. “But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different. 

“Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake … Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans? 

“Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region.” 

President Assad admitted that “many mistakes” had been made by his forces in the early part of the uprising, but insisted that only “terrorists” were now being targeted. 

“We have very few police, only the army, who are trained to take on Al-Qaeda,” he said. “If you sent in your army to the streets, the same thing would happen. Now, we are only fighting terrorists. That's why the fighting is becoming much less.” 

On Friday seventeen soldiers also died in overnight clashes with suspected army deserters in the city, which foreign journalists are forbidden to enter. 

President Assad insisted that he had responded differently to the Arab Spring than other, deposed Arab leaders. “We didn't go down the road of stubborn government,” he said. “Six days after [the protests began] I commenced reform. People were skeptical that the reforms were an opiate for the people, but when we started announcing the reforms, the problems started decreasing e_SLps This is when the tide started to turn. This is when people started supporting the government.” 

President Assad said: “The pace of reform is not too slow. The vision needs to be mature. It would take only 15 seconds to sign a law, but if it doesn't fit your society, you'll have division … It's a very complicated society.” 

He described the uprising as a “struggle between Islamism and pan-Arabism [secularism], adding: “We've been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s and we are still fighting with them.”