Assad Says Regime Needs Time to Win

President Bashar Assad said the Syrian regime needs more time to win the civil war in remarks broadcast Wednesday that amounted to an acknowledgement his forces are struggling to contain the rebel challenge.

Over the past few months, the military has increasingly been stretched thin fighting on multiple fronts against rebels seeking to oust Assad's authoritarian regime. His forces have been unable to quell the rebellion as it spread to the capital Damascus with significant clashes that began in July and to Syria's largest city, Aleppo, a few weeks later. At the same time, the military is fighting in a string of other cities and towns around the country.

Assad, speaking in a television interview with a pro-regime private station, blamed his difficulties in defeating the rebels on what he claimed are outside forces fueling the rebellion.

"We are fighting a regional and global war, so time is needed to win it," he told privately owned Dunya television, which is majority owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Assad and one of Syria's wealthiest men. "I can sum up all this explanation in one sentence: We are moving forward. The situation is practically better but it has not been decided yet. That takes time."

The comments were released in an advance excerpt of the interview to be aired by Dunya in full later in the day.

Syrian girl, Haya Khalil, 8, who fled her home in Homs with her family due to fighting between the Syrian government forces and the rebels, looks up, as she and her family take refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) Close

Taken together with his comments to a visiting Iranian official over the weekend, Assad shows willingness for an even more prolonged conflict, even with more than 20,000 estimated dead in more than 17 months of fighting. He told the Iranian official his regime would continue the fight against the rebels "whatever the price."

Rights groups monitoring the violence now report the deaths of 100 to 250 or more Syrians on daily basis, though the figures are impossible to independently verify. The fighting has been intense enough to force hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, seeking refuge elsewhere in the country or in neighboring nations.

Assad responded with a hearty laugh when told by the interviewer that rumors about his whereabouts often made the rounds among Syrians.

"I am here with you in the studio in Damascus," he said.

Assad has rarely appeared in public since four of his top security officials were assassinated in a July 18 rebel bombing in Damascus.

Appearing confident and relaxed, Assad paid tribute to the Syrian people, saying they stood steadfastly behind him and his armed forces.

But he criticized the leaders of onetime ally Turkey, saying some of them were "ignorant."

Syrian officials routinely cite neighboring Turkey, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as among the rebels' main supporters, providing them with money and weapons.

"The fate of Syria, I tell the Syrian people, is in your hands," Assad said. "This broad base of the Syrian people protects the country."

He also paid tribute to government forces.

"If we ask ourselves which segment (of Syrian society) did more than all others in enabling this country to stand fast, it is undoubtedly the armed forces."

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he would press the U.N. Security Council to set up a safe haven inside Syria to protect thousands of people fleeing the violence.