West is distorting facts in Georgia: Syria's Assad
Says Russia is being isolated after it defended its interests
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday backed Russia's pursuit of its "legal interests" in its conflict with Georgia and accused the West of using "total disinformation" to isolate Moscow.
"On this issue we fully support Russia... Georgia started this crisis, but the West is blaming Russia," Assad said in an interview with the Kommersant daily ahead of his scheduled arrival Wednesday in Russia for two days of talks.
The West is guilty of "total disinformation, distorting facts and attempts at international isolation" in its reaction to Russia's offensive into Georgia to halt an attack on the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia, he said.
Assad is to begin a two-day working visit at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, his first trip to Russia since December 2006.
Damascus is a Soviet-era ally of Moscow, which maintained a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus starting in the 1970s. The Russian media has speculated in recent years that Moscow is hoping to revive the base.
"The war, which was triggered in Georgia, is the culmination of attempts to encircle and isolate Russia" as the U.S. continues to push Cold War-era policies, Assad said. Russia was merely "defending its legal interests," he said.
Assad was speaking after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday said Russia was entirely to blame for its growing diplomatic isolation in the West in an interview with CBS News.
She said Russia's refusal to withdraw from Georgia was making it "the outlaw in this conflict."