“We would welcome any kind of political settlement, whether it comes through from the Russians or the Iranians,” Moallem said. The officials spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
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In the interview, Assad fired back at Western leaders who called for the dictator to resign among reports of repeated human rights violations that include the indiscriminate targeting of civilians with chemical weapons and barrel bombs.
The United States fiercely opposes Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the Pentagon previous year cut off high-level discussions with Moscow after its annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine.
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The United States and a number of its allies are flying strike missions into Syrian air space and they don’t want to have any misunderstandings with Russia’s forces there.
Washington has been pressing Moscow to help with a political transition in Syria, which would see Assad hand over power to an interim governing body.
Russian officials have criticized the Obama administration for not working with Assad in the air campaign against the Islamic State inside Syria’s border.
The prospect of greater military involvement by Russian Federation has alarmed the United States, which is leading a coalition that has been bombing Islamic State strongholds in both Syria and Iraq. He denied refugees were fleeing his government and said they were escaping Islamic State, Nusra and other groups, which attack civilians, perpetrate killings, destroy infrastructure and deprive families of livelihoods.
Torbjorn Soltvedt, Principal Analyst, Middle East and North Africa at Verisk Maplecroft said in a note Tuesday that despite the rhetoric against Islamic State, “concrete measures taken by Russian Federation have nonetheless focused on ensuring the survival of the Syrian regime”.
“If you are anxious about them, stop supporting terrorists”.
The civil war there has been waged for more than four years.
“We’ve made clear that further support, military or otherwise, for the Assad regime is destabilising and counter-productive, principally because Assad has lost the legitimacy to lead that country“, he said, adding: “Russia’s decision to double down on Assad is a losing bet”.
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Russian Federation and the West are deeply divided over the Syrian crisis, which has claimed the lives of at least 240,000 people in Syria since its outbreak in March 2011. Putin maintained that the flow of refugees would have been worse had Russian Federation not provided support for Syria.
