WikiLeaks: Assad Wondered How he was Expected to Maintain Control over Lebanon after Syria’s Withdrawal

Syrian President Bashar Assad ruled out the possibility that Iran would use an atomic bomb against Israel because that would lead to Palestinian casualties, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in al-Jumhuriya newspaper on Thursday.

The WikiLeaks cable dated April 1, 2009, spoke of a meeting between the Syrian president and then U.S. Senator Arlen Specter.

He added Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not the true ruler of Iran, but its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was.

Assad voiced his disappointment with the halt of indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel, hoping that they may somehow be resumed.

Regarding Lebanon, he said: “Israel does not have to worry about Lebanon’s independence as it has occupied and destroyed it several times.”

He described the Lebanese-Syrian dispute as a matter that only concerns these two states.

“You can’t ask me to withdraw from Lebanon, while asking me to control it,” he told Specter.

Furthermore, the Syrian leader asserted that he assisted Qatari officials in devising the Doha agreement that helped end Lebanon’s political crisis in 2008.

On Hizbullah and Hamas, Assad said: “Only peace can resolve these two issues.”