„Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the United States is ‚not serious‘ about defeating ISIS, while voicing optimism about an end to Syria’s war. In an interview with NBC News in Damascus on Wednesday, Assad predicted the Syrian army would retake control of the country in a ‚few months‘ and credited Russian support for its recent territorial gains in a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
He called U.S. airstrikes against ISIS ‚illegal‘ and ‚counterproductive‘ and accused the U.S. of seeking to overthrow the Syrian government. ‚We wanted to defeat those terrorists, while the United States wanted to manage those groups in order to topple the government in Syria,‘ Assad said, criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama. ‚He’s failed, but that doesn’t mean I win because for him the war is to remove me … for me the war is to restore Syria,‘ Assad said. ‚‘If we can get rid of those terrorists, if we can restore the stability in Syria, this is where we win. Otherwise, you cannot talk about winning.‘“
(Katie Reilly: „Bashar al-Assad Criticizes U.S. as ‚Not Serious‘ About Defeating ISIS“)
