AlZa'bi :Syria's government forces still strong

Syria's information minister on Sunday distanced the government from comments by the country's vice president that neither the rebels nor the forces of President Bashar al-Assad could win the civil war, Reuters reported. Last week Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said in a newspaper interview that the country needed a government of national unity since neither side could win militarily. "There are 23 million people in Syria with their own personal opinions, this was one of those 23 million," the information minister, Umran Ahid al-Za'bi, told a news conference in the Syrian capital Damascus. Za'bi told journalists that the Syrian army was still strong, despite a string of rebel advances and seizures of military sites across the country. He said that many reports of rebel gains were "fantasy, media victories". "I have general advice to those political powers that reject dialogue: Time is getting short. Hurry and move on to working on a political solution," he said. "These military efforts to try to topple the government, of getting rid of the president, of occupying the capital ... forget about this. That is my advice." The minister also said Syria would never use chemical weapons, if it had them, anywhere inside or outside the country. It was the first time a government minister clearly stated that there were no intentions of using chemical arms in any capacity. When asked about rebel advances in the north, where the opposition holds large swathes of territory, Za'bi mocked the idea of rebel control there. "They are incapable of staying there and they cannot control the ground," he said. "All this talk is untrue.. If they attack a checkpoint they cannot stay longer than 15 minutes."