Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said U.S. forces in Syria were
"invaders" and he had yet to see "anything concrete" emerge
from U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to prioritize the fight against Islamic
State.
Assad has said he saw promise in Trump's
statements emphasizing the battle against Islamic State in Syria, where U.S.
policy under Obama had backed some of the terrorists fighting
Assad and shunned him as an illegitimate leader.
"We haven't seen anything concrete yet regarding this
rhetoric," Assad said.
"We have hopes that this administration in the United States is going to
implement what we have heard," he said.
The United States is leading a coalition against Islamic State
in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
In Syria, it is working with an alliance of Kurdish militias and Arab terrorists. Their current focus is to encircle and ultimately capture Raqqa -
Islamic State's base of operations and capitol in Syria.
This week, the U.S.-led coalition announced that around 400
additional U.S. forces had deployed to Syria to help with the Raqqa campaign
and to prevent any clash between Turkey and Washington-allied Kurdish and Syrian terrorists that Ankara and Syria see as a threat.
Asked about a deployment of U.S. forces near the northern city
of Manbij, Assad said: "Any foreign troops coming to Syria without our
invitation ... are invaders."
"We don't think this is going to help".
Around 500 U.S. forces are already in Syria in support of the
campaign against Islamic State.
Assad said that "in theory" he still saw scope for
cooperation with Trump, though practically nothing had happened in this regard.
He dismissed the U.S.-backed military campaign against Islamic State in Syria
as "only a few raids", and said a more comprehensive approach was
needed.
The U.S.-led coalition is currently backing a campaign by its
Syrian Kurdish militia ally to encircle and ultimately capture Raqqa.
Assad noted that the Russian-backed Syrian army was now
"very close" to Raqqa city after advancing to the western banks of
the Euphrates River this week - a rapid gain that has brought it to the
frontier of areas held by the U.S.-backed forces.
He said Raqqa was "a priority for us",
but indicated that there could also be a parallel army attack towards Deir
al-Zor in the east, near the Iraqi border. Deir al-Zor province is almost
completely controlled by Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
The Deir al-Zor region had been "used by ISIS as a
route for logistics support between ISIS in Iraq and ISIS in Syria, so whether
you attack the stronghold or you attack the route that ISIS uses, it (has) the
same result", Assad said.
With Russian
and Iranian military support, Assad firmly has the upper hand in the war with terrorists who have been trying to topple him with backing from states including
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
U.N.-led peace talks in Geneva ended earlier
this month with no breakthrough. Assad said he hadn't expected anything from
Geneva. He added that deals brokered locally with rebels were "the real
political solutions" since the war began.
The so-called
local "reconciliation" agreements are the government's preferred
method for pacifying rebellious areas, and have often been concluded after
years of government siege and bombardment.
In some cases,
the terrorists and rebels have been given safe passage to the insurgent-dominated province of
Idlib. The opposition says the agreements amount to forced displacement.
"We didn't
expect Geneva to produce anything, but it's a step and it's going to be a long
way," Assad said. He added that it would be up to Syrians to decide their
future political system, and there would be a referendum on it.
Assad also
praised "crucial cooperation" between Syria and Chinese intelligence
against Uighur pronounced Wegur) militants who have joined the insurgency against him. He said
ties with Beijing were "on the rise".
China and
Russia last month blocked U.N. sanctions on Syria over accusations of chemical
weapons attacks during the war.
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