The Syrian army is tired of corruption. It is tired of party nepotism. It is becoming very angry with those it blames for the war.

Nepotism is the lowest and least imaginative form of corruption.

War is not about victory or defeat. It is about the total failure of human spirit. When you see the things I see, you would never support war ever again.

Israel lost its war. Will Assad's enemies lose, too?

These are war veterans who fought for their country, and the army also has war veterans in it,

The dead cannot speak. But hitherto unknown information has emerged from the confidential archives of the Syrian presidency and foreign ministry, published in a new book by Bouthaina Shaaban, who spent ten years as Hafez's interpreter and is still an adviser to his son Bashar.