Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Iran and Russia’s unwavering support for Damascus has played a key role in the country’s “steadfastness” in its battle against terrorism. “The Russian role is very important. It has had a significant impact on both the military and political arena in Syria … What is definite is that the Russian support to the Syrian people and government from the very beginning, along with the strong and staunch support of Iran, has played a very important part in the steadfastness of the Syrian state in the fight against terrorism,” Assad told the British Sunday Times newspaper. The Syrian president also said the US-led coalition has never been serious in its fight against terrorism and stressed that since the coalition launched airstrikes against militant targets in Syria in September 2014, the so-called Islamic State militant group, al-Nusra Front and “other like-minded organizations or groups were expanding freely”. Syria has been entangled in a civil war since March 2011. IS terrorists control parts of the Arab country, mostly in the east. Russia’s aerial support for the Syrian forces has given fresh impetus to the fight against foreign-backed terrorists.
