Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has acknowledged that the Syrian Army is facing a lack of manpower and has to give up some territories in the country's long running civil war.
The embattled Syrian president, in a rare public address broadcast on Sunday, also said his army was capable of defending the country and vowed to win the civil war.
"The army is capable ... Everything is available, but there is a shortfall in human capacity," Assad said, according to Al Arabiya. "Every inch of Syria is precious," he added.
"But that doesn't mean we can talk about collapse," he insisted, according to AFP. "There were areas where we wanted to show our commitment. But the army cannot be on every part of the territory."
Assad also, for the first time, acknowledged support from Iran and Hezbollah to his military in the face of civil war.
"Iran has only presented military expertise and our faithful brothers in the Lebanese resistance fought with us. Lebanese resistance has an important role and we are grateful for their courage, strength and backing us," he said while describing militant group Hezbollah as Lebanese resistance, according to Xinhua.
Assad also said any political dialogue to end his country's conflict will be "hollow" and "meaningless" unless it is based on combating terrorism.
"Any political proposal that is not essentially based on countering and ending terrorism will not see the light. ... All we have is to counter terrorism, that is the only option we have," he said, according to Xinhua.
Assad's government, a day earlier, announced an amnesty for army deserters in an attempt to boost the ranks of the army. Syria's army once had around 300,000 members, reported Al Jazeera, but the size of Syrian army has been significantly reduced due to deaths, defections, and a rise in draft dodging during country's ongoing civil war, now in its fifth year.
