Authors: Jeanette Torres
Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images(DAMASCUS, Syria) -- With information being everything these days, Syria's embattled leader says his government is losing the propaganda war to the West.
With no sign of the violence ending after 14 months despite a United Nations-crafted ceasefire agreement in place, President Bashar al-Assad told the Russian state TV channel Rossiya 24 in an interview that he blamed the West for releasing "a large amount of false information."
According to al-Assad, Western nations have sympathized with his political opponents and "outplayed us... at the very beginning of the crisis -- invented stories."
Al-Assad ordered a crackdown in March 2011 against rebels seeking his ouster, alleging they were terrorists being driven by foreign agitators. An estimated 9,000 to 11,000 people have died during the fighting although a true death toll is impossible to verify because of a news blackout set up by the Syrian government.
The president said the West was guilty of spreading "lies, or rumors, or false accusations -- call them what you will -- all these are soap bubbles, they have a short life."
However, al-Assad said, "The main thing is to win in real life," predicting his supporters would ultimately prevail.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio
