Assad blames US for Syria truce collapse
President Bashar Assad rejected US accusations that Syrian or Russian planes struck an aid convoy in Aleppo or that his troops were preventing food from entering the city's rebelheld eastern neighborhoods, blaming the US for the collapse of a cease-fire many had hoped would bring relief to the war-ravaged country.
In an interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, Assad also said deadly US airstrikes on Syrian troops last week were intentional, dismissing American officials' statements that they were an accident.
Assad said the US lacked "the will" to join forces with Russia in fighting extremists. Assad, who inherited power from his father and is now in his 16th year in office, cut a confident figure during the interview -- a sign of how his rule, which once seemed threatened by the rebellion, has been solidified by his forces' military advances and by the air campaign of his ally Russia, which turned the tables on the battlefield last year.
He said his enemies alone were to blame for nearly six years of devastation across Syria, and while acknowledging some mistakes, he repeatedly denied any excesses by his troops. He said the war was only likely to "drag on" because of continued external support for his opponents.
"When you have many external factors that you don't control, it's going to drag on and no one in this world can tell you when" the war will end, he said, insisting Syrians who fled the country could return within a few months if the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar stopped backing insurgents.
He spoke in Damascus' Muhajireen palace, a whitestone building where he often receives guests, nestled among trees on the foothills of Qasioun Mountain.
The Syrian capital, seat of Assad's power, has stayed relatively untouched throughout the conflict, spared the devastation inflicted on other, oppositionheld areas of the country.
In recent months, Assad's forces have taken rebel strongholds in suburbs of the capital, bolstering security and reducing the threat of mortar shells. The attack on the aid convoy outside Aleppo took place Monday night, hitting a warehouse as aid workers unloaded cargo and triggering huge explosions. Footage filmed by rescuers showed torn flesh being picked from the wreckage. Witnesses described a sustained, twohour barrage that included barrel bombs - crude, unguided explosives that the Syrian government drops from helicopters. A senior US administration official said the US believes with a very high degree of confidence that a Russian-piloted aircraft carried out the strike. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and asked for anonymity. Assad dismissed the claims, saying whatever American officials say "has no credibility" and is "just lies."