Al-Assad: US Playing Syria Terrorism Card as Part of Struggle for Global Dominance
Local Editor
The conflict in Syria is part of Washington's prime goal to impose global hegemony, President Bashar al-Assad told a Russian newspaper.
Terrorists in Syria, he said, are being used by the US and its Gulf allies to assert control over the region, primarily to weaken Iran.
Stating that the West and especially the United States never stopped the Cold War mentality in pursuit of world dominance, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, al-Assad said that global tensions, especially when it comes to Syria, are escalating into World War III.
"The whole issue is about keeping the hegemony of the Americans around the world, not allowing anyone to be a partner on the political or international arena, whether Russia or even their allies in the West," al-Assad stated in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
While one is yet to see a full-blown clash between the world biggest military powers, Assad stated that the struggle is partly manifested in military confrontation, as seen in Syria, while other strands of the tensions revolve around the issues of "terrorism and security," as well as "political" outlook.
In the Syrian conflict, the US is using terrorists to achieve its own and its allies' objectives in the wider Middle East, the main goal of which is to weaken Damascus' regional ally - Iran.
In 2011, when the Syrian conflict began, world powers were negotiating with Iran over its atomic enrichment program.
"It was the main issue around the world, and Syria has to convince Iran to go against its interests, that time. France tried, Saudi Arabia wanted us at that time to be away from Iran with no reason, just because they hate Iran," al-Assad explained, adding that Damascus received offers to that end after the conflict started in Syria.
After the conflict started, the US and its regional allies used the terrorists which, according to al-Assad, the US created, to push through its agenda.
"The United States has always, since Afghanistan in the early eighties, until this day, they think 'terrorism is a card we can play. We can put on the table,'" the Syrian president said.
Terrorists which proliferated widely after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, were financed and "whitewashed" by the extremist Sunni Wahhabism brand of Islam, exported by Saudi Arabia, he said.
"We all know that the majority of those terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, Daesh [ISIS/ISIL], al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, and other organizations. They don't belong to any political movement, they don't care about any ideology but their own ideology, the Wahhabi Ideology," al-Assad said.
It is this threat that Russia is fighting now, al-Assad said, praising Moscow for its fight against terrorism while demanding nothing in return.
"We trust their [Russia's] politics, politics based on morals before interests. We trust them because we know that they wanted to support us because they wanted to get rid of the terrorists, not because they want to ask us anything in return, and they never did. Until this moment, they never asked us for anything in return."
"Russia wanted to fight terrorism ... not only for Syria, not only for Russia, for the rest of the region, for Europe, for the rest of the world," al-Assad said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
