Assad told Portugal’s RTP TV that Trump could be a “natural ally” to his government, but said he was dubious Trump could influence all the decision-makers to change the U.S. strategy.
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Moreover, Russia is defending own interests by fighting terrorists in Syria and helping uphold global law, which is something Western powers should also realize and acknowledge, Assad said.
“The highest priority must be given to ending the civil war” in Syria, he said, adding “there is no other option to end this crisis”.
Assad, in an interview with Portuguese broadcaster RTP published Tuesday, said Trump’s pledge to focus the fight on ISIS militants was “promising”, but added: “Can he deliver?” Assad particularly noted that Trump’s prior lack of experience in office makes it hard to predict how he will function as president.
“Of course, when he’s [the UN Secretary General] objective, he can play an important role in dealing with different officials in the United Nations in order to bring the policies of the different states, mainly Russian Federation and the United States, toward more cooperation and more stability regarding Syria”, Assad said in a Tuesday interview to the Portuguese RTP broadcaster, released on Tuesday. ‘This means the USA will not be looking for regime change’. “Of course”, Assad replied.
Lawmakers have accused the Assad government of war crimes as the number of people killed during the violence in Syria continues to mount. “My attitude was you’re fighting Syria, Syria is fighting [the Islamic State (IS)], and you have to get rid of [IS]”.
Turkey has been a critical ally to the U.S.in the fight against ISIS, allowing the USA military to conduct some operations from its Incirlik air base. -Russian relations that have deteriorated over Russia’s role in Syria and its ongoing military intervention in Ukraine.
You can’t be fighting two people that are fighting each other, and fighting them together.
Trump has struck a different tone to current U.S. policy on some aspects of the multi-sided Syrian conflict, where the United States with allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia has backed some of the insurgents who have been fighting to topple Assad for more than five years. A month after these remarks, a study found that 80 percent of Russian airstrikes in Syria were not targeting ISIS. The US-backed campaign to retake the last Islamic State stronghold in Iraq – the city of Mosul – is well underway.
“Assad as president has actively tried to kill his own people with barrel bombs, in a most bad way”, Merkel told reporters at the conference.
The LCC also said there had been air strikes on several locations in Aleppo province on Tuesday, including one that damaged a hospital in Awaijel. Both bills had the firm backing of Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel of NY, the panel’s top Democrat. “Any cooperation that doesn’t go through the Syrian government is not legal”. He said that over the past 50 years the U.S. had repeatedly intervened in the Middle East.
“When you talk to the many Syrian refugees who have fled here to Germany, they will tell you their own personal story, and the majority of them – the great majority of them – fled from Assad, and most of them did not even flee IS”. They think they are the judge of the world. They are sovereign country, they are an independent country, but this is their limit; they don’t have to interfere in any other country.
“That’s why I always say the Syrian problem as isolated case, as Syrian case, is not very complicated”.
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Assad also went on to accuse the U.S. of meddling in other countries’ affairs.
