Assad Says Strikes on IS Not Working as Coalition Says Halted Group Advance
Coalition strikes against the Islamic State group are having no impact, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview to be published Thursday, as members of the U.S.-led offensive claimed to be winning the fight.
"You can't end terrorism with aerial strikes. Troops on the ground that know the land and can react are essential," he said in this week's edition of French magazine Paris Match.
"That is why there haven't been any tangible results in the two months of strikes led by the coalition.
"They would of course have helped had they been serious and efficient."
the U.S.-led coalition announced that the jihadist group's advance across Iraq and Syria is finally being stopped.
"Participants noted that the global campaign against ISIL/Daesh is beginning to show results. The ISIL/Daesh advance across Syria and into Iraq is being halted," a coalition statement obtained by Agence France-Presse said, referring to the group by its alternative names.
The statement, issued after a meeting in Brussels led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by coalition air strikes, "are now reclaiming territory in Iraq."
The coalition of around 60 mainly Western and Arab nations was formed after the first U.S. air strikes in August against IS, which has proclaimed a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
They also agreed at the Brussels meeting to develop a "multifaceted" strategy to combat IS, including stopping the flow of foreign fighters, cutting finance and "delegitimization" of its powerful, social media-driven brand.
Kerry had earlier warned that the fight against IS could take "years."
Separately, Assad said he does not think about "death or life" when asked whether he was afraid to suffer the same demise as the late Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi, who were both toppled after international interventions in their countries.
"I am doing my best to save the country," he said.
"But I would like to emphasize one thing. My goal has never been to remain president, neither before, during, or after the crisis."
Assad's role in any future transition to end the bloody, nearly four-year Syrian conflict is the subject of much controversy.
A year ago, Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said that Assad would remain president and lead any form of transition, ahead of January peace talks that ended in failure.
But the opposition -- as well as countries such as Turkey and France -- insist that the Syrian leader must go no matter what happens.
Assad insisted he was "neither a personal enemy or rival of (French President Francois) Hollande."
"I think that Daesh is his rival, their popularity is very much the same," he said, in a dig at the French leader's record low popularity ratings.
(Photo courtesy of Paris Match)
Source: Agence France Presse
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