Excerpt from October 12, interview with Russian reporter, Daria Aslamova.

President Assad: ...the United States have always, since Afghanistan in the early eighties, till this day, they think "terrorism is a card we can play. We can put on the table. You can put in your pocket, and put it on the table anytime."
Journalist: ...just for few years, they became fanatics. This is strange for me, and there was completely secular. And, who is commanders in Daesh, in ISIS? It's ex... ex-colonels, ex-majors from army of Saddam Hussein. They're secular people, too. How this become army of fanatics? I don't understand.

President Assad: Part of it is related to what happened in Iraq after the invasion in 2003, where the American army or the Americans in general control everything in Iraq, including the prisons, and the leader of ISIS and most of his entourage were in the same prison. So, ISIS was created in Iraq under the American supervision.

Journalist: It was maybe not ISIS, this period, but Al Qaeda?

President Assad: No, it was called IS, it wasn't ISIS. It was "Islamic State of Iraq."

Journalist: Islamic State?

President Assad: Because it wasn't in Syria at that time. That's why it was called IS. That was in 2006.

Journalist: 2006?

President Assad: 2006, of course.

Journalist: Already, it was Islamic State in 2006?

President Assad: Of course. In 2006, of course, before the withdrawal of the Americans. That's why they played either direct role or indirect role in creating ISIS. Now, when it comes to Syria, when you talk about the very beginning of the problem before anybody was talking about al-Nusra or ISIS, they called it "Free Army" as a secular power fighting the government and the army. Actually, from the very beginning, if you go back to the internet and you have videos, you have pictures, you have everything, the beheading started from the very first few weeks. So, from the very, very beginning, it was an extremist movement, but they called it "Free Army." But when it becomes bigger and bigger, and the beheading couldn't be hidden anymore, they had to confess that there is al-Nusra, but actually it's the same one; al-Nusra is the same one as the "Free Syrian Army," the same as the ISIS. You have the same grassroots moving from area to area for different reasons. One of them is the ideology, the other one is out of fear, because if they don't move from place to place, they may kill you. Third one, for the money. ISIS used to give highest salaries for a certain time, one year ago, two years ago, and before, so many of the al-Nusra and "Free Syrian Army" joined ISIS for the money. So, you have many different factors, but the basic-

Journalist: But, fanaticism?


President Assad: But the same basic, the same foundation of extremism, is the common thing between all these different names and organizations.

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