Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the United States has "lost its cards" in Syria, calling on America to leave the country in an interview with Russia Today.
"The Americans should leave. Somehow, they're going to leave. They came to Iraq with no legal basis, and look what happened to them. They have to learn their lesson. Iraq is no exception. Syria is no exception. People will not accept foreigners in this region any more," Assad said.
Around 2,000 U.S. special forces troops are believed to be on the ground in Syria.
PRESIDENT SAYS OPEN TO TALKS WITH SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES
The Syrian president said his government had opened doors to negotiation with U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a predominantly Kurdish group that controls parts of northern Syria.
Assad said the United States put its faith in the SDF after other "moderate rebel groups" it backed turned out to be Islamists.
"They are looking for another card. This card is the SDF now because when we are moving forward in different areas to defeat the terrorists the only problem left in Syria is the SDF," he said.
"We are going to deal with it by two options," Assad continued. "The first one: we started now opening doors for negotiations, because the majority of them are Syrians… If not we’re going to resort to liberating those areas by force."
"We don't have any other options, with the Americans or without the Americans," Assad said.
SDF made up mainly of Kurdish YPG -YPJ militants, jihadist groups, smaller groups of Arab, Turkmen. Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa, or the Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigade, is currently part of the SDF. Between 2012 and 2013, Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa was allied to the al-Nusra Front in Raqqa city. Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa appeared to adapt to the Islamic presence in Raqqa, not only by adding the definite adjective 'al-Islami' (Islamic) to its name but also by using the same flag as Islamic State
'WE WERE CLOSE TO DIRECT CONFLICT BETWEEN RUSSIA & U.S.’
In the interview with RT, Assad said Russia and the U.S. came close to a confrontation in Syria.
"We were close to having a direct conflict between the Russian forces and the American forces," Assad said. "Fortunately, it has been avoided, not by the wisdom of the American leadership, but by the wisdom of the Russian leadership," he added.
Months after an alleged chemical attack prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to call the Syrian president "Animal Assad" in a tweet, Assad said he had no nickname for Trump.
"This is not my language, so, I cannot use similar language. This is his language. It represents him," Assad said.
"Somebody like Trump will move nothing for me," he added.
SYRIAN GOVERNMENT TO BRING IDLIB BACK UNDER CONTROL
Assad vowed to reclaim all of the Syrian territory, including the Idlib province, which is one of the last remaining pockets of terrorist groups.
He said the Idlib governorate in northwestern Syria was captured by militants from al-Nusra terror group and their allies in 2015. Thousands of seasoned jihadists have been allowed to flee other Syrian areas and go to Idlib as a result of pacts with the Syrian authorities.
Assad explained that the militants chose to go there and his government supported them in this decision because the scattering of the enemy force was not good from the military perspective.
"Our plan was to put them in one, two or three areas. Let’s say, having two or three frontiers is better than having tens and maybe more than 100 frontiers at the same time. So militarily it is better. They chose it but it is better for us," he said.
SYRIA TO RAMP UP AIR DEFENSES AMID ISRAELI THREAT
Syria will continue beefing up its air defenses after getting help from Russia, Assad said in the interview.
"Our air defense is much stronger than before, thanks to the Russian support, and the recent attacks by the Israelis and by the Americans and British and French proved that we are in a better situation," he said. "The only option is to improve our air defense, this is the only thing we can do, and we are doing that."
Assad slammed Israel because of being in contact with terrorists in Syria from the start of the seven-year war. He said militants appeared to have acted in the interest of Israel when they picked air defense systems as their primary target.
"The first target of the mercenaries in Syria was the air defense. Before attacking any other military base it was the air defense... This is the other proof that Israel was in direct link with those terrorists in Syria. So, they attacked those bases, and they destroyed a big part of our air defenses," he pointed out.
NO IRANIAN TROOPS IN SYRIA, BUT THERE ARE OFFICERS
Despite Israel's claims, there are no Iranian troops in Syria, but there are Iranian officers who assist as military advisers, Assad said.
"The most important fact regarding this issue, is that we do not have Iranian troops. We never had, and you cannot hide it, and we are not ashamed to say that we have, like we invited the Russians, we could have invited the Iranians," Assad told the RT broadcaster.
The Syrian president noted, however, that there were Iranian officers "who work with the Syrian Army as help."
"The starkest fact about their [Israel's] lies about this issue, the Iranian issue, that the recent attack a few weeks ago, they said that they attacked Iranian bases and camps, as they said, allegedly, and actually we had tens of Syrian martyrs and wounded soldiers, not a single Iranian. So, how could they say that we have it? So, it is a lie," Assad stressed.
Tehran has denied having military bases or troops in Syria.
