Assad warns West against intervention in uprising

BEIRUT -- Syrian President Bashar Assad warned the Middle East will burn if the West intervenes in his country's 7-month-old uprising, threatening to turn the region into "tens of Afghanistans."

Assad's comments, published in an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph, were his harshest so far regarding the potential for foreign intervention. But they belie a growing concern over the possibility of some sort of Western military action after months of NATO airstrikes helped rebellious Libyans oust Moammar Gadhafi.

"Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground, you will cause an earthquake," Assad said. "Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?"

Still the U.S. and its allies have shown little appetite for intervening in another Arab nation in turmoil.

And unlike Gadhafi, Assad enjoys a number of powerful allies that give him the means to push back against outside pressure. A conflict in Syria risks touching off a wider Middle East conflict with arch foes Israel and Iran in the mix. Syria wouldn't have to look far for prime targets to strike, sharing a border with U.S.-backed Israel and NATO-member Turkey. Syria is the closest Arab ally of Iran and has ties to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and other radical groups including the militant Palestinian Hamas.

Syrian opposition leaders have not called for an armed uprising like the one in Libya and have for the most part opposed foreign intervention.

But there are growing calls from anti-government protesters for a no-fly zone over Syria because of fears the regime might use its air force given increasingly frequent clashes between government troops and army defectors.

Retaliatory attacks

In case of international intervention, Assad and his main Mideast backer, Iran, could launch retaliatory attacks on Israel or -- more likely -- unleash Hezbollah fighters or Palestinian militant allies to do the job. To the north, Turkey has opened its doors to anti-Assad activists and breakaway military rebels, which also could bring Syrian reprisals.

Assad alluded to those concerns at home and abroad, saying "any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region."

The uprising against the Syrian regime began during a wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The U.N. says that Assad's crackdown has left more than 3,000 people dead since mid-March.

Facing an unprecedented threat to his rule, Assad is desperate to show that only he can guarantee security in a troubled region where failed states abound.

In a show of support for the regime, thousands of Syrians carrying the nation's flag and Assad posters rallied Sunday in a major square in the southern city of Sweida, some 70 miles south of Damascus. There have been two similar massive pro-Assad demonstrations in recent days in the capital Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia.

Assad said that Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely." He was apparently referring to a wave of sanctions that were imposed by the European Union and the U.S.

"But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different," Assad said.

The Syrian president described the uprising as a "struggle between Islamism and pan-Arabism." He was referring to his ruling Baath party's secular ideology and the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group that was crushed by his regime in 1982.