The United States is not really interested in defeating terrorists in Syria as it really wants “to control and use them”, Syrian President Bashar Assad told NBC News in an exclusive interview, denouncing the US airstrikes as “counterproductive”.
Assad said evidence shows that the US lacks the will to fight the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group and other terrorist groups in Syria because the actions of the US-led coalition did not prevent terrorist groups from expanding their territory, RT reported.
“The reality is telling that, since the beginning of the American airstrikes, the terrorism has been expanding and prevailing,” he said, specifying that “during the American and alliance airstrikes, IS was expanding and taking over new areas in Syria”.
The Syrian president also described the US airstrikes in Syria and Iraq as “counterproductive and ineffective” and called them “pro forma actions”.
The reason for such “ineffectiveness” lies in the fact that the US has other goals besides defeating terrorism.
“It’s about being serious, having the will. The United States doesn’t have the will to defeat the terrorists. It had the will to control them and to use them as a card, like they did in Afghanistan. That will reflect on the military aspect of the issue,” he said during the interview.
Assad particularly doubted that the US wants to defeat IS. He stressed that the terrorist group originated in Iraq when the US troops were there and only then came to Syria.
