“We are against terrorism. But what is terrorism? Terrorism is one country invading another, occupying its land and expelling its people. If you mean by terrorism acts committed by gangs of robbers and murderers and the like, we are against it. But the acts of people against the occupiers of their land have not throughout history been known as acts of terrorism. We support the national resistance of all peoples.”

Cited in Patrick Seale’s “Asad: the Struggle for the Middle East”