video transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) President Bashar al-Assad said he does not see the West embarking on a military intervention in Syria and warned that the cost of such action would be unbearable, Kremlin-funded RT television channel reported on Thursday (November 8). "I think the price of this invasion, if it is happening, is going to be more than the whole world can afford, because if you have problem in Syria, and we are the last stronghold of secularism and stability in the region and co-existence, it will have domino effect that affects the world, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And you know the implication on the rest of the world. I don't think the West is going in that regard. But if they do so, nobody can tell what's next," Assad said in an interview with RT. Assad, who is battling to put down a 19-month old uprising against his rule, also said he would "live and die in Syria", in what appeared to be a rejection of the idea that a safe exit and foreign exile could be one way to end the civil war.