'Quake' if West intervenes in Syria

DAMASCUS / UNITED NATIONS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that any Western intervention would cause an "earthquake" inflaming the region.

In an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper, he warned of "another Afghanistan" if foreign forces intervened in his country as they had with the Libyan uprising.

"Syria is the hub now in this region," the paper quoted Assad as saying.