DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday his country had foiled Western designs to topple him but his army had not yet won the fight to end Syria's six-year-old foreign-backed terrorism.
In a televised address, Assad said that even though there were signs of victory after six-and-a-half years of war, the "battle continues, and where we go later and it becomes possible to talk about victory...that's a different matter."
He said the assistance extended by stalwart allies Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement had enabled the army to make battlefield gains and reduce the burden of war.
"Their direct support - politically, economically and militarily - has made possible bigger advances on the battlefield and reduced the losses and burdens of war," Assad added.
Assad vowed to pursue an offensive in Syria's vast deserts, where he is backed by Hezbollah and heavy Russian air power that have allowed his troops to capture significant ground from Daesh terrorists on several major fronts.
His government hopes to steal a march on U.S.-backed militias in the attack on Daesh’s last major Syrian stronghold, the Dayr al-Zawr region that extends to the Iraqi border. The eastward thrust, unthinkable two years ago when Assad seemed in danger, has underlined his ever more confident position and the dilemma facing Western leaders who still want him to topple him.
"Our army is achieving one gain after another every day to eliminate terrorists...We will continue to attack terrorists until the last terrorist on Syrian land," Assad said.
He said his country welcomed Russian-brokered local ceasefire deals that Moscow is seeking to extend elsewhere in Syria as these would end bloodshed and bring an end to the terrorism and pardoning of militants who agree to lay down arms.
"The idea of these de-escalation zones is to stop the bloodletting ... and the eviction of the armed groups handing over their weapons and the return of normalcy," Assad said. "We have an interest in the success of this initiative."
Russia has since last month deployed military police beside army checkpoints in southwest Syria and in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus to help ensure calm in deals it has worked out with militant groups.
The de-escalation zones in central, northern and southern Syria were proposed in a plan approved in May by Russia, Turkey and Iran in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
Despite that deal, Assad said Syrians don't trust Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that the Syrian leader does not consider him to be a guarantor. Erdogan's government is a main backer of militants, and sent troops into Syria a year ago. Those troops, and allied militants, now control a stretch of Syrian territory along the border.
"Any Turkish citizen who is in Syria without permission from the Syrian government will be considered an occupier," Assad said.
Negotiations are under way with mainstream armed groups and local councils to broker a truce in the besieged northern Homs countryside enclave. Terrorist leaders are also calling for the release of thousands of detainees held in government security prisons.
Assad, whose government brands many of the Western backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups that Moscow has reached truces with as "terrorists", has said his army retained the right to continue to attack them.
However, Assad has condemned U.S.-inspired "safe zones" which President Donald Trump earlier this year said he hoped to achieve with Russia, saying such a plan would only "give cover to terrorists".
The Syrian president refused any security cooperation with Western nations or the reopening of their embassies, until they cut ties with terrorists.
He said Syria will look east when it comes to political, economic and cultural relations.
"Let's be clear. There will be no security cooperation nor opening of embassies or even a role for some countries that say that they want to play a role in ending the crisis in Syria before they clearly and frankly cut their relations with terrorism," Assad said. "At that point maybe we can speak about opening embassies."
In the early years of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries called on Assad to step down, and both the U.S. and the European Union have imposed sanctions on his government. Several Arab and Western countries also withdrew their diplomats from Damascus.
The Syrian president said his country's economy is turning to growth again "at a very slow pace, although we are under an almost complete embargo."
Assad said that hardly a week passes without an attack in the West, referring to assaults carried out by Daesh supporters. "These facts are what forced them (the West) to change their stance."