The secretary general of Syria's communist party has said that to end Syria's ten-month-old unrest, one must address its root causes, blaming the crisis mainly on the country's current socio-economic policies.

"We believe that the underlying causes that led to this situation are the socio-economic policies that were in place, and we should support the expansion of democratic freedom," Ammar Bikdash told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Efforts should be made to remove the socio-economic tension, he said, citing supporting national production as one of the measures. He agreed with the Syrian government that the turmoil in Syria is not an uprising but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.

"There have been incidents of terrorism, mass and individual murders, as well as attempts to incite violence on sectarian or national basis," he said, stressing that "so long as the public rejects the conspiracy, those acts won't threat the Syrian regime. "

He said "the foreign endeavors to mobilize the Syrian people to move against the Syrian regime have failed."

Meanwhile, Bikdash said Syria is now paying for its supportive stances toward "resistance movements in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq."

He accused the United States of trying to foment chaos in the region to apply the so called "New Middle East project which aims to enslave the people of the region."

"Syria has rejected the hegemony projects, mainly the recent New Middle East project which has been put forward by Israel and then adopted by the United States," he said, adding that "the U.S. project aims also to overthrow the national anti-imperialism leadership in Syria."

Syria has been witnessing escalating violence, whose government is slammed with a crescendo of international condemnation and repetitive calls on President Bashar al-Assad to step down over the government's alleged bloody crackdown on protest movement.

In his fourth national address since unrest began in March, Assad on Tuesday vowed to fight "terrorists" in his country with " iron fist," saying that the "terrorists" are working to pave the way for foreign interventions.

Assad said he would not give up responsibility so long as he still has the support of his people.

The Syrian government has said more than 2,000 army and security personnel were killed during the months-long unrest, while the United Nations put the death toll in the country at more than 5,000.