BY Mayowa Tijani
Syria president, Bashar al-Assad, says his government is not and “will not” be part of a United States (US) led coalition against jihadist groups, Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda.
Assad who spoke in an interview with BBC, made his stance known on the battle against ISIS, saying the Syrian army was defending its country and the citizens.
Asked if his government would like to join the US-led coalition against ISIS and al-Qaeda, Assad said: “We cannot and we don’t have the will and we don’t want, for one simple reason: because we cannot be [in] alliance with the country who support the terrorism… because we are fighting the terrorism.”
He went on to say the terrorist ideology that most of these Islamist groups were latching unto were being supported by Saudi Arabia.
“First of all, the source of this Islamic State ideology, and other al-Qaeda affiliated groups are the Wahhabi that have been supported by the royal family in Saudi Arabia,” he said
“So just to say that ‘We do’ and ‘We don’t’; it doesn’t matter; it’s what you do — what the action that you are taking in order to prove that what you are saying is correct.”
The United States’ official policy still wants Assad out of office as soon as possible, but Assad has said America is not Syria’s lifeline.
“First of all, we don’t breathe through the Americans, we only breathe through our citizens. That’s how we breathe; this is first. So it’s not a lifeline for us,” he said.
Syria has been experiencing a civil war for over four years, and now has to battle ISIS, an Islamist group known for brutal killings of western hostages.
Due to ISIS dominance in some parts of Syria, the US and many other western states who have been hostile to Assad’s government have been considering a partnership with him against ISIS, which he has just rejected.
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