Bashar: WMDs are last resort in defence against Israel

For more than an hour, Bashar Al Assad answered questions in Arabic, only occasionally lapsing into English to make a joke, flesh out a point or gently correct his young interpreter.

But when it came to the issue of suicide bombers he did away with the translation and spoke directly in the language he learned as an ophthalmology student in London.

In his first major interview since his visit to Britain more than a year ago, Bashar stressed that his support for the Palestinians and his sympathy for those who choose to become human bombs has not been weakened by ferocious western criticism.

The 38-year-old president also spoke at length about his attempts to reform Syria and his hopes of introducing democracy in a country that has known more than 30 years of dictatorship.

Towards the end of a wide-ranging conversation, he became most passionate when asked about suicide bombers and the Palestinian cause that he has made one of the defining issues of his presidency.

How would he explain - let alone justify - to those who may not master every detail of Middle East politics or be familiar with Islamic tradition, the phenomenon of suicide coupled with mass murder that Palestinians are using against Israelis?

In October 2001, Bashar embarrassed Tony Blair by using their joint press conference in the presidential palace during the Prime Minister's visit to praise suicide bombers and compare them to the French Resistance.

Most vital part of his message

Since then he has lost no opportunity to express his sympathy for those who choose death - their own and those of innocent others - to promote the Palestinian campaign against Israel.

This, he said, is the most important part of his message to Britain and the West. He did not use the term "suicide bombings". He referred to "this thing" or these "operations" and he claimed that they were out of control.

"We never say it is legitimate or not. And we have never supported or condemned this thing. The form of resistance is determined by the people who have the problem."

What others thought was of no consequence. "It doesn't matter if we like it or not, if we support it or condemn it. He (the suicide bomber) is going to die and he doesn't care about your opinion. They are not going to go and kill themselves because the head of an organisation tells them: 'Die, it's your turn.' He is going to die because he wants to."

He claimed that the militant "organisations" behind them such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad no longer held sway over those who chose to die. Israel was responsible, he said, and only Israel could stop them. "These are individual operations. They can get explosives if they want to," he said.

"So what is the reason that led to this operation? The Israeli killings, the Israeli occupation, the colonies. If your readers want these operations to stop they should deal with the reason for them.

"More killings by Israel will have a reaction. It's a reality we cannot control. Even the organisations cannot control this reality. Only Israel, when it stops killing, won't have any more killing."

But surely as an Arab leader he had influence that could be used to urge Palestinians to abandon violence? He rejected the idea. "Many voices encourage them not to die, but they are going to die."

Bashar's support for the Palestinians has extended to making what are interpreted as inflammatory comments about Israel to western audiences. In 2001 he told the Pope on his visit to Syria that the Israelis displayed the "same mentality that betrayed Jesus Christ".

On another occasion he said the Israelis were "more racist than the Nazis". Anti-semitic propaganda is ubiquitous in the Middle East, so much so that George W Bush has made an end to "incitement" by state-controlled Arab media part of his package of demands in the region.

Yet asked directly why he appeared to hate Israel and the Jews so much, Bashar denied the suggestion. "I have never said such a thing. We don't hate. We look for peace. If you hate you cannot talk about peace. Peace and hatred are mutually exclusive."

There were Jews in Syria who were full citizens and had been for centuries, he argued. A recent count put the total of Syrian Jews left in the country at about 100.

But on the issue of so-called militant offices in the Palestinian refugee camps around Damascus, he adopted a more conciliatory tone. The US and Britain had been pressing Syria to clamp down on what diplomats referred to as "rejectionist groups" such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas and up to 20 other organisations that used Syria as a base of operations.

Until now Bashar - in the same vein that Gerry Adams played down IRA fronts as "cultural associations" - had insisted that the offices were media centres playing a social function.

Chemical and biological arms

During the interview he conceded that they may have been used for military purposes, but were no longer, an assertion backed up by diplomats who said that Syria had imposed what amounted to a curfew on activities by its militant allies.

Middle ranking officials from the groups who were expelled by Israel had houses in Syria. "But they cannot do anything military from these places. This is well known. We said they are closed. They don't do what they used to do, they don't receive anyone, they don't make any calls."

Bashar's effective admission that Syria had developed chemical and biological weapons as a last resort defence against Israel was coupled with a warning that the presence of WMD meant the region was "moving from bad to worse. Now there are much greater risks of war than before."

For him his refusal to compromise on the issue is a question of fairness. "If you don't use double standards, why not support us? Why not raise it with the Israelis?"

However, those expecting a Gaddafi-scale unilateral gesture on WMD from Bashar will have to wait. His hold on power is too weak to allow him to offer to scrap his weapons or invite inspectors in. "It would be the last decision he would take," one diplomat said.

Despite Libya's concession, signs of a climb-down on WMD by Iran, the American presence in Iraq, the capture of Saddam Hussain, he is not nervous. "The US does not have to be in Iraq to threaten Syria. They are everywhere in this world, that doesn't change anything," he said.

So what was his reaction when the pictures of Saddam being prodded by an American medic flashed up on his television? "It doesn't matter whether you like him or not, it is inhuman."

Like many in the Arab world, he had his doubts about the official accounts of the capture. He mentioned rumours that the Americans used gas to make him sleep, that he was captured by Iraqi tribesmen who then sold him to the Americans, adding that his meek surrender was at odds with the violent death of his sons.

Reverting to English, he laughs at the prospect of more wild conspiracy theories: "People are going to discuss it for years."

To the lasting anger of Britain and the US, Bashar opposed the invasion of Iraq and warned repeatedly that it