Assad: rebels will lose; dialogue possible

Syrian rebels will inevitably lose, President Bashar Assad said in comments published Friday, after 55 people were killed in a regime bombing of a gas station. "The armed groups exercise terrorism against the state ... [and] will not be victorious in the end," Assad told the weekly Egyptian magazine al-Ahram al-Arabi. "It will take time" for regime forces to win, but they will, he said. The "door to dialogue is open -- only talks with the opposition will solve the crisis," he said. But in the meantime, his regime "will not stand with its hands tied in the face of those who bear arms against it," Assad told the magazine. His remarks were published a day after regime warplanes bombed a gas station crowded with cars and people in the northern Raqqah province. Witnesses said the gas station was on the outskirts of Ayn Isa, a city of about 40,000 near a border post with Turkey that Syrian opposition fighters stormed two days ago. The opposition Local Coordination Committees said at least 55 people were killed in the bombing and stressed the number was expected to rise. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 110 people were killed or wounded. Videos purporting to be of the gas station after the bombing showed at least two shallow craters in the ground, surrounded by destruction, including smoldering trucks with their doors flung open and a burned-out tractor. If verified, the bombing would be one of the worst casualty tolls from the Syrian military's use of aircraft in its effort to crush the armed insurgency, The New York Times said. All told, more than 250 people were killed in fighting across Syria Thursday, the coordination committees said. Assad told al-Ahram al-Arabi Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar were responsible for escalating the violence, accusing them of arming Syrian rebels. "They suddenly saw money in their hands after a long period of poverty and think they can buy history and play a regional role," he said. "The widespread idea that Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt are the cornerstone of stability in the region is false," he said. "It has always been, and will remain, Syria, Iraq and Egypt." He dismissed Saudi Arabia as a "mediator with the West that does not appreciate the axis of resistance against Zionism advocated by Syria." The "axis of resistance" refers to a Shiite anti-Israel, anti-West alliance among Syria, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Assad said Qatar "uses the power of money and revolves in the orbit of the West by providing weapons and money to terrorists to repeat the scenario of Libya," where leader Moammar Gadhafi and his regime were toppled in a bloody civil war last year. "The Qataris were the quickest to fuel the violence," Assad said. Assad also criticized Turkey, a former close ally turned bitter foe that has repeatedly called for him to step down, saying Ankara was unconcerned "about the interests of its people, focusing solely on its ambitions that include 'the new Ottoman Empire,'" he said.