Aliens plotting to destroy Syria - president Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the country faces an alien plot, adding that those behind the Houla massacre were monsters. Assad told a newly-elected Syrian parliament that the parliamentary polls were the perfect response to the criminal killers and those who finance them. He said atrocities like the May 25-26 massacre of at least 108 people near the town of Houla, in central Syria, were committed by monsters. "What happened in Houla and elsewhere (in Syria) are brutal massacres which even monsters would not have carried out," he said. The president paid tribute to civilian and military martyrs of the violence in Syria, saying their blood was not shed in vain. "We are not facing a political problem but a project to destroy the country," Assad said, adding there will be no dialogue with the rebel groups which seek foreign intervention. "Syria is open to all Syrians regardless of their views, but terrorism can not be part of the political process and we must fight against terrorism to heal the nation," Assad said.