Syria’s President Assad in an interview with Charlie Rose of CBS News.
Charlie Rose: “The United States is prepared to launch a strike against your country because they believe chemical weapons are so abhorrent that anybody who uses them crosses a red line and that therefore, if they do that they have to be taught a lesson so that they will not do it again.”
President Assad: “What red line?”
Rose: “A red line of the use of chemical weapons against your own people.”
Assad: “Who drew it?”
Rose: “The president says it was not just him but the world has drawn it in their revulsion against the use of chemical weapons. That the world has drawn that red line.”
Assad: “It’s not the world because Obama drew that line and Obama can draw that line for himself and for his country, not for other countries. We have our red lines, like our sovereignty, our independence. Well if you want to talk red lines, United States used depleted uranium in Iraq, Israel used white phosphorus in Gaza and nobody said anything. What about red lines? We don’t see red lines. It’s political red lines.”
