Syria's Assad speaks to embattled natiion -- Text of speech and video.

In the televised speech he spoke about the  "latest developments in Syria and the region"....

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It was the 47-year-old leader's first speech in months and his first public comments since he dismissed suggestions that he might go into exile to end the civil war, telling Russian television in November that he would "live and die" in Syria.

Since that interview, rebels have strengthened their hold on swathes of territory across northern Syria, launched an offensive in the central province of Hama and endured weeks of bombardment by the regime forces trying to dislodge them from Damascus's outer neighbourhoods.

Syria's political opposition has also won widespread international recognition. But al-Assad has continued to rely on support from Russia, China and Iran to hold firm and has used his air power to blunt rebel gains on the ground....

Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from Amman in neighbouring Jordan, reported that the opposition refuses to accept any kind of solution that does not stipulate the stepping down of Assad.

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Foreign intervention

Despite the estimated death toll of 60,000 announced by the United Nations earlier this week - a figure sharply higher than that given by activists - the West has shown little appetite for intervening against al-Assad in the way that NATO forces supported rebels who overthrew Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

But NATO is sending US and European Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to the Turkish-Syrian border.

The United States military said US troops and equipment had begun arriving in Turkey on Friday for the deployment.

Germany and the Netherlands are also sending Patriot batteries, which will take weeks to deploy fully.

Turkey and NATO say the missiles are a safeguard to protect southern Turkey from possible Syrian missile strikes.

Syria and allies Russia and Iran say the deployments could spark an eventual military action by the Western alliance....

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The war pits rebels mainly drawn from the Sunni Muslim majority against al-Assad, a member of the Shia-derived Alawite minority sect, whose family has ruled Syria since his father seized power in a coup in 1970.

Al-Assad's last formal speech was delivered to parliament seven months ago, in early June. "If we work together," he said, "I confirm that the end to this situation is near."...