Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that he would have been toppled long ago like the shah of Iran if his people did not support him.
He said Syria, where an initially peaceful revolt against 42 years of Assad family rule began in March 2011, was under attack from Islamist militants.
President al-Assad said the militants were being sent by malevolent Arab countries and was threatened by Western enmity and Turkish hostility.
Assad responded violently to popular demonstrations at the outset of the uprising and has since used tanks, artillery, helicopter gunships, troops and militiamen to try to crush armed rebels.
He contends that most of Syria's 23m people are on his side in the struggle.
Assad contrasted himself with the late shah of Iran, who was toppled by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
He said, "If I had been in the same situation, that is if I didn't have the people behind me, I could not have resisted. I would have been overthrown. How come I'm still standing?"
Assad's remarks betrayed no hint that he was prepared to consider the kind of political transition proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan with broad Western and Arab backing.
An international conference in Geneva last weekend endorsed proposals for a political transition in Syria, but Russia denies the plan implies Assad's departure, as the West insists.
Elsewhere, Iraq's Foreign minister has said that it believed militants loyal to al-Qaeda were crossing from Iraq into Syria to carry out attacks.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he believes al- Qaeda was responsible for two suicide car bombs in Damascus in May that killed at least 55 people.
Meanwhile, Syrian troops backed up by helicopters advanced on into the rebellious northern town of Khan Sheikhoun.
