Syrian President Bashar al-Assad considered that the US sanctions, known as the "Caesar Act," amounted to a new economic aggression against his government, and during his speech he suffered a health problem that forced him to stop for minutes.
Al-Assad added - in a speech to members of the People's Assembly at the Presidential Palace today, Wednesday - that a state of panic over the impact of US sanctions is the reason for the recent record decline in the value of the Syrian currency against the dollar, due to citizens' concern about their economic conditions.
He said that these sanctions are in addition to previous efforts to "suffocate" the Syrian people and harm their living standards.
And he stressed the need to recover the stolen public funds by legal means without favoritism for anyone who believes himself above the law.
During his speech, al-Assad fell ill with a health problem, which the official Syrian News Agency "SANA" said was due to a "slight decrease in pressure", which forced him to interrupt his speech before it resumed "naturally" after a few minutes.
And Assad appeared in a pre-recorded speech asking for a seat to rest after he stopped the speech, and in the modified footage, he appeared again on television in front of the parliament members.
Al-Assad, a 55-year-old former ophthalmologist, said, "Doctors are the worst patients. The truth is I did not eat food yesterday afternoon ... I ate sugar and salt."
Al-Assad considered what he described as the war on Syria as part of the international struggle led by the West to maintain its control over the world after the emergence of international powers that rejected the unipolar policy.
Al-Assad’s speech to members of the People's Assembly came after the holding of parliamentary elections last month, which were denounced by opposition and independent observers as a "farce" in a country under the rule of the Baath Party.