document · Speech
Bashar al-Assad — speech to the People's Assembly as the uprising began (30 March 2011)
Arabic 
Syria 2011-03-30
Politician: Bashar al-Assad
Original source: https://www.voltairenet.org/article169245.html
Content
I am sure you all know that Syria is facing a great conspiracy whose tentacles extend to some nearby countries and far-away countries, with some inside the country. […] Today, there is a new fashion which they call "revolutions". We do not call them so because we think this is mostly a popular condition.
They mixed up three elements: sedition, reform, and daily needs. […] But sedition has become part of the issue and started to lead the other two factors and take cover under them. […] We cannot say that all those who demonstrated are conspirators. This is not true […] The conspirators are few in number.
We are concerned with the outcome because the last stage for them is for Syria to get weaker and disintegrate, because this will remove the last obstacle facing the Israel's plans. This is what concerns us. […] Our foreign policy has been based on holding to our national rights, holding to pan-Arab rights, to independence, to supporting Arab resistance when there is occupation.
If the people get the government to bow under pressure, it will bow to foreign pressure. The principle is wrong. The relationship between the government and the people is not that of pressure or based on pressure.
Burying sedition is a national, moral, and religious duty; and all those who can contribute to burying it and do not are part of it. The Holy Quran says, "sedition is worse than killing," so all those involved intentionally or unintentionally in it contribute to destroying their country. So there is no compromise or middle way in this. […] The Syrian people are peaceful people, loving people, but we have never hesitated in defending our causes, interests and principles, and if we are forced into a battle, so be it. How to cite this document
This is a third-party primary text. Cite the original author and source — Tayyar hosts the verbatim excerpt for research access, but Tayyar is not the author. The "Retrieved via" line at the bottom records your access path through Tayyar for transparency.
In-text
(al-Assad, 2011) al-Assad, B.. (2011). Bashar al-Assad — speech to the People's Assembly as the uprising began (30 March 2011) [Original language: AR]. voltairenet.org. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://www.voltairenet.org/article169245.html
al-Assad, Bashar. 2011. "Bashar al-Assad — speech to the People's Assembly as the uprising began (30 March 2011)." [Original language: AR] voltairenet.org. Accessed June 21, 2026. https://www.voltairenet.org/article169245.html.
@misc{doc-document-95ca2d66-a4de-4938-9862-ce765f7f2762,
author = {al-Assad, Bashar},
title = {Bashar al-Assad — speech to the People's Assembly as the uprising began (30 March 2011)},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-03-30},
howpublished = {Online; hosted at voltairenet.org},
url = {https://www.voltairenet.org/article169245.html},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
language = {ar},
note = {Retrieved via Tayyar at https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/95ca2d66-a4de-4938-9862-ce765f7f2762},
} Retrieved via Tayyar: https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/95ca2d66-a4de-4938-9862-ce765f7f2762 on June 21, 2026. Tayyar is a research host for primary sources, not the author of this document.