Chilling warning
Assad taunts US, says troops must leave Syria or face wider conflict
The United States should learn the lesson of Iraq and leave Syria, President Bashar Al Assad said in an interview, responding to US President Donald Trump’s description of him as an animal by saying “what you say is what you are”.
In the interview with RT, the Russian state’s international broadcaster, Assad raised the prospect of conflict with US forces if they do not leave Syria. He vowed to recover territory where American troops have deployed, either through negotiations with Washington’s Syrian allies or by force.
Assad, who is backed by Russia and Iran, appears militarily unassailable in the war that has killed an estimated half a million people, uprooted around 6 million people in the country, and driven another 5 million abroad as refugees. After recovering swathes of territory, Assad now controls the biggest part of Syria. But tracts remain outside his control at the borders with Iraq, Jordan and Turkey.
That includes large parts of the north and east where US special forces deployed during the fight against Daesh, supporting the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Assad said the government had “started now opening doors for negotiations” with the SDF, whose main component, the Kurdish YPG, has mostly avoided conflict with Damascus in the war.
“This is the first option. If not, we’re going to resort to ... liberating those areas by force. We don’t have any other options, with the Americans or without the Americans,” he said. “The Americans should leave, somehow they’re going to leave,” he said.
This is the first option. If not, we’re going to resort to ... liberating those areas by force. We don’t have any other options, with the Americans or without the Americans Bashar Al Assad
damascus — Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has warned USbacked Kurdish forces he would not hesitate to use force to retake the third of the country they control.
“The only problem left in Syria is the SDF,” Assad told Russia Today in an interview aired on Thursday, referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces which has spearheaded battles against Daesh group militants.
“We’re going to deal with it by two options,” he said.
“The first one: we started now opening doors for negotiations. Because the majority of them are Syrians, supposedly they like their country, they don’t like to be puppets to any foreigners,” Assad said in English.
“We have one option, to live with each other as Syrians. If not, we’re going to resort... to liberating those areas by force.”
The SDF, dominated by the militia of a self-proclaimed Kurdish autonomous administration, has air support from the US-led coalition against Daesh and operates on the ground with US and French special forces.
“It’s our land, it’s our right and it’s our duty to liberate it,” Assad said. “The Americans should leave. Somehow they’re going to leave.”
An SDF spokesman said the group’s military command was aware of the interview but had no immediate comment.
Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesman for the US-led coalition, declined to specify how the body would react if government forces attacked the SDF. “The SDF has done an amazing job helping get Daesh off the battlefield and they should be commended, not threatened,” he said on Thursday.
Both the SDF and Russianbacked Syrian troops are engaged in separate operations against Daesh in east Syria, creating a highly volatile situation, where deconfliction mechanisms have already been tested several times.
The SDF has clashed with Syrian regime fighters on the ground, and the coalition has bombed government forces and their allies on multiple occasions.
Assad said a confrontation between Russia and US forces over Syria had also been narrowly avoided. “We were close to have direct conflict between the Russian forces and the American forces,” he said.
“Fortunately, it has been avoided, not by the wisdom of the American leadership, but by the wisdom of the Russian leadership.”
A US-led wave of missile strikes across the country last month raised fears of a Russian response and full-blown internationalisation of the conflict.
More strikes by Israel have further raised fears that the devastating seven-year war could still escalate.
Israel has claimed that it is targeting military infrastructure run by Iran, which has been Damascus’s other key ally in the conflict.
But Assad denied that Tehran had any active troops in Syria: “The most important fact regarding this issue, is that we don’t have Iranian troops.”
“We could not hide it, and we would not be ashamed to say that we have. We invited the Russians, we could have invited the Iranians,” he told RT.