Assad says will live and die in Syria

DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the cost of any foreign military intervention in Syria will be higher than what the entire world could handle, vowing to "live and die in Syria".

Assad made the remarks during an interview with the Russia Today TV, whose excerpts were published Thursday, while the entire interview will be aired Friday.

"I think that the cost of the foreign invasion - if it happened - would be higher than what the entire world could handle," Assad said.

The president said Syria is a last bastion of secularism, stability and coexistence in the region, adding that if anything happens in Syria, "it will have the domino effect that would rattle the world from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean".

"I don't think the West will move on in this direction (of intervention), but if they did, no one can predict what will happen after that," he said.

In an apparent response to recent Western voices about granting asylum to Assad in case he decides to leave power, Assad said, "I am not a toy, and the West hasn't made me go to the West or to any other country. I am a Syrian and made by Syria, and I have to live and die in Syria."