“Any foreign troops coming to Syria without our invitation or consultation or permission, they are invaders, whether they are American, Turkish, or any other one,” Assad told Chinese PHOENIX TV, as cited by the Syrian state-run SANA news agency.
When a journalist asked the Syrian president if Damascus had “opened doors” for American troops in Aleppo province’s city of Manbij, Assad said “No, we didn’t.”
“What are they [foreign troops] going to do? To fight ISIS? The Americans lost nearly every war. They lost in Iraq, they had to withdraw at the end. Even in Somalia, let alone Vietnam in the past and Afghanistan.”
According to Assad, the US “didn’t succeed anywhere they sent troops, they only create a mess; they are very good in creating problems and destroying, but they are very bad in finding solutions.”
The Pentagon confirmed earlier in March that US troops had been sent to Manbij to prevent conflict between US-backed Kurdish forces and rebels backed by Turkey.
Without foreign intervention, the Syrian war “will take a few months” to bring to an end, Assad noted.
“The complexity of this war is the foreign intervention. This is the problem,” he said.
Syria’s president stressed that government troops are now very close to Raqqa, ISIS stronghold some 100 kilometers from Manbij.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that the US had deployed a small number of combat forces in and around Manbij in a bid to prevent clashes between the Turkish- and US-backed forces operating in the area.
The deployment was the first of its kind by the US in Manbij. American forces have carried out training and advising missions in the city before.
Turkey, too, has deployed forces to Syria in a violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Assad stressed that the solution to the Syrian conflict had to be focused on two parallel ways, namely dialog and the fight against terrorism, which he said the government is responsible for.
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11 March 2017 - 12:51
News ID: 817000
(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Any foreign forces, including those from the US, that enter Syria without invitation are invaders, Syrian President Bashar Assad told Chinese media in an interview, noting that no one had given the US troops currently in Manbij permission to be there.
