Syrian official addresses demonstrations
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Imad Moustapha tells CNN Syria faces "a massive campaign of disinformation and lies"
- He says the government is not killing its citizens
- Islamic factions are looking to incite civil war, Moustapha says
- The United Nations says more than 2,500 people have died in Syria at the hands of the regime
Washington (CNN) -- While the United Nations says more than 2,500 people have died in Syria at the hands of the regime, President Bashar al-Assad's point man in the United States says the figure is false and the result of a conspiracy aimed at Damascus.
"These are blatant lies," Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, told CNN's Hala Gorani in an exclusive interview Friday. "This is the problem we are facing today in Syria -- a massive campaign of disinformation and lies."
Since the uprising against the Assad regime began in March, few Western media outlets have been granted permission to report from inside Syria. Those who receive visas find independent reporting difficult, as they operate under tight restrictions and are allowed little freedom of movement.
CNN was granted permission to travel to Syria in June, but with minimal travel outside the watch of government minders.
Over the last six months, most of the world has borne witness to the posting of videos on YouTube and other social media websites purportedly showing the Syrian army fiercely putting down pro-democracy protests. Human Rights Watch has interviewed numerous witnesses who offer consistent accounts of security forces using lethal force against protesters and bystanders -- in most cases without any advance warning.
"The Syrian regime is not killing its citizens," Moustapha told CNN, recalling his recent travels to cities like Aleppo and Latakia, where activists have documented aggression from the army online.
"I personally met with demonstrators," he said, "who told me while we participated in the beginning of the demonstrations because our requests have been about political freedoms, about democracy, now we are not anymore because this is being used by the Western powers and Islamic fundamentalists for their own agendas."
Keeping them honest: Syria in denial?
Syrian Ambassador talks about 'lies'
How the uprising in Syria beganIt is not the army that bears responsibility for the killings inside Syria, a defiant Moustapha said, but rather radical Islamic fundamentalists who are leading the demonstrations, and in the process destabilizing Syria.
"Everybody knows inside Syria and outside Syria that religious groups have started those demonstrations from mosques," he said. "The same groups that are bragging about September 11th are calling the Mujahedeen of the Islamic world to come to Syria."
Moustapha said the situation inside Syria is analogous to post-invasion Iraq, with various Islamic factions looking to incite civil war.
To hear the Syrian ambassador tell it, Syria is a country in the midst of massive democratic reform that will soon serve as a beacon to the Arab world, and where those protesting for greater freedoms have nothing to fear.
If you are "about political opposition, about opposing every policy of the Syrian government you are OK, you are welcome," Moustapha told CNN. "The new laws in Syria allow you to form your own political party. The new media law is the most liberal law in the whole Arab world. This is the new reality in Syria."
