"The Arab League lacks legitimacy. It's a League that represents the Arab states, not the Arab people, so it can't grant or retract legitimacy," Assad said in extracts from an interview with Turkish media published on the presidency's Facebook page on Thursday.

The Arab League last month granted the foreign-backed opposition group Syria's seat at the beginning during a session in Qatar attended by key rebel official and former Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib.

"Real legitimacy is not accorded by organizations or foreign officials or other country... legitimacy is that which is granted by the people," Assad said.

"All these theatrics have no value in our eyes," he added.

In November 2011, the Arab League suspended Syria, which is a founding member of the organization.

The interview, with Turkey's Ulusal television and Aydinlik newspaper, was conducted on Tuesday and will be aired in full on Friday, the presidency page said.

In extracts published on Wednesday, Assad accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of not having said "a single word of truth since the beginning of the crisis in Syria."

Turkey is a key backer of the militants fighting the Syrian government forces in the unrest that broke out in March 2011.

Many people, including large numbers of Syrian army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

Damascus says the West and its regional allies including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are supporting the militants.