Western powers would cause an "earthquake" in the Middle East if they intervened in Syria, president Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published today, after protesters demanded outside protection from a crackdown that has killed 3,000 people.
Syrian officials were to hold more talks in Qatar with delegates of the Arab League, which wants to convene a dialogue in Cairo between the Syrian authorities and their opponents.
The league's two-week deadline for the planned dialogue to start expires today, with Dr Assad showing no signs of easing the crackdown, which is drawing increasing international outrage and criticism even from previously cautious Arab countries.
Syria, as DrAssad noted in his interview with the Sunday Telegraph, sits at the heart of the volatile Middle East, where it borders Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. "It is the faultline, and if you play with the ground, you will cause an earthquake," he said. "Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?"
Dr Assad's remarks signal determination to hang onto power against a popular uprising that repression has failed to crush.
Mass protests have also failed to dislodge him, creating an unstable stalemate, which could perhaps be upset by the impact of Western sanctions or any surge in army and police defections.
Syria, a mostly Sunni Muslim country of 20 million, is ruled with an iron fist by members of Dr Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, who also dominate the military, key sectors of the economy and a pervasive security apparatus.
After Syrian security forces killed 40 anti-Assad protesters on Friday, Arab ministers issued their strongest reaction yet.
The Arab League's committee on the Syrian crisis sent an "urgent message to the Syrian government expressing its severe discontent over the continued killing of Syrian civilians".
A Syrian foreign ministry source, quoted by state media, said the statement was "based on media lies" and urged the committee to "help restore stability in Syria instead of stirring sedition".
Yesterday, security forces and pro-Assad militiamen killed at least 10 civilians, mostly in Homs, 140km north of Damascus. At a big funeral for six of them in the city's Bab Amro district, mourners linked arms and sang old ballads.
"Tears are falling from the eye, my mother cries for Syria's youth," they chanted.
Syria has barred most international media, making it hard to verify conflicting accounts from activists and authorities.
Reuters