Al-Assad: US Waging Proxy War in Syria against Russia, Iran

Local Editor

Despite claiming humanitarian motives, US actions in Syria are meant to undermine the power of Russia and Iran, with Washington trying to achieve this goal by directly supporting terrorists, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said.

The US' secret collaboration with terrorists is the reason why all attempts at a ceasefire and political transition in Syria have so far failed, al-Assad told Serbian newspaper Politika. The interview was also published by Syria's SANA news agency.

"Supporting the terrorists is a war of attrition against Syria, against Iran, against Russia, that's how they look at it. That's why not only this ceasefire - every attempt regarding ceasefire or political moving or political initiative, every failure of these things, the United States was to blame," the Syrian president said.

Al-Assad was referring to the deal negotiated by the US and Russia in September, which it was hoped would pave the way for a lasting truce in Syria. In practice, the agreement was derailed by armed groups, which had rejected it from the very beginning. The US pledged to convince the so-called moderate opposition to stick to the bargain and separate from terrorists, who would then be legitimate targets for a joint Russian-American air campaign. Washington didn't deliver on this promise, however.

According to the Syrian president, a lasting ceasefire was not what Washington sought from the deal in the first place.

"They always ask for ceasefire only when the terrorists are in a bad situation, not for the civilians. And they try to use those ceasefires in order to support the terrorists, bring them logistic support, armament, money, everything, in order to re-attack and to become stronger again," he said.

Sometimes the US support for terrorist groups goes through its allies such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, al-Assad believes, while occasionally they provide direct support even to Daesh [ISIS/ISIL], a group that the Washington-led coalition was supposedly formed to defeat. An example of this came during an American attack on Syrian Army troops near Deir ez-Zor, which happened while the US-Russian truce was in force, and which the US claimed was the result of a mistake.

"They attacked a very big area. They didn't attack a building to say, ‘we made a mistake.' They attacked three big hills, not other groups neighboring these hills," he said. "In less than one hour, Daesh attacked those hills. It means that Daesh gathered their forces to attack those hills. How did Daesh know that the Americans would attack that Syrian position? It means they were ready, they were prepared."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team