Assad: War in Syria has reached a turning point, the end is near

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday the three-year war tearing the country apart is turning in the government’s favor, state television reported.

“This is a turning point in the crisis, both militarily in terms of the army’s achievements in the war against terror, and socially in terms of national reconciliation processes and growing awareness of the truth behind the [attacks] targeting the country,” the television quoted Assad as saying.

In the past few months, Syria’s army has made a series of advances, overrunning a string of opposition bastions near the Lebanese border and in the central province of Homs.

Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah, a strategic ally of Assad’s regime which has sent thousands of fighters into Syria, has played a key role in helping turn the tide in Assad’s favor.

A series of truces between the warring sides have also been agreed, mainly in southern Damascus and the outskirts of the capital.

The ceasefires came after months of suffocating army sieges that had led to the deaths of scores of people, as a result of medical and food shortages.

The truce agreements stipulated the rebels should hand over their heavy weapons in exchange for aid delivery.

Opposition activists in several areas where truces have been reached frequently accuse the regime of violating the agreements.

Assad’s statement comes at a time when there appears to be no political solution in sight for a war that has killed more than 150,000 people and forced nearly half the Syrian population to flee their homes.

Since the start of a revolt against Assad in 2011, Damascus has blamed all violence in the country on a foreign-backed “terrorist” plot.

Syria’s conflict broke out after the regime unleashed a brutal crackdown against an Arab Spring-inspired peaceful protest movement calling for political change.