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 President Barack Obama had backed some
of the rebels fighting Assad and shunned him as an illegitimate leader.
"We
haven't seen anything concrete yet regarding this rhetoric," Assad said in
an interview with Chinese TV station Phoenix. "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.
In Syria, it
is working with an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. Their current focus
is to encircle and ultimately capture Raqqa - Islamic State's base of
operations 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 Syrian militias that Ankara sees 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 militia allies to
encircle and ultimately capture Raqqa, Islamic State's base of operations in
Syria.
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.
INTELLIGENCE
COOPERATION WITH CHINA
With Russian
and Iranian military support, Assad firmly has the upper hand in the war with
rebels 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 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 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.
*REUTERS*
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