WASHINGTON: Syrian President Bashar Assad is “deluded” if he thinks there is a military solution to the war in Syria, nearly five years into a brutal conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, a US official has said.
In an exclusive interview with AFP released earlier, the defiant Syrian strongman vowed to recapture Syria as a whole and keep “fighting terrorism.”
“He’s deluded if he thinks that there’s a military solution to the conflict in Syria,” deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
“All we’re looking at, if the Syrian regime continues the fighting, is more bloodshed, more hardship and, frankly, a greater hardening of positions on either side.”
Assad spoke hours before world powers agreed on an ambitious plan to cease hostilities in Syria within a week, but doubts soon emerged over its viability, especially because it did not include Daesh or Al-Qaeda’s local branch. “The proof is in the pudding,” Toner cautioned, in reference to the deal. “We need to see action on the ground on the part of those parties, and that includes the regime. That includes the opposition. They need to stop the fighting, and then we can determine who is part of this process and who is not.”
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces were poised to advance into the Daesh stronghold of Raqqa province and allied Russian jets kept up air strikes on rebel-held towns north of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday.
An advance into Raqqa would re-establish a Syrian government foothold in the province for the first time since 2014 and may be aimed at pre-empting any move by Gulf forces to send ground forces to fight Daesh militants in Syria.
The Syrian army announced the capture of more ground in the northern Aleppo area, where its advances backed by allied Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian fighters have cut the main rebel supply route from Turkey into opposition-held parts of Aleppo.
If its forces retake Aleppo and seal the Turkish border, Damascus would deal a crushing blow to the insurgents who were on the march until Russia intervened last September, shoring up Assad’s rule and paving the way to the current advances.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called on Russia on Saturday to stop bombing civilians in Syria, saying this was crucial for achieving peace in the country.
“France respects Russia and its interests ... But we know that to find the path to peace again, the Russian bombing of civilians has to stop,” Valls said in a speech at a security conference in Munich.
In an exclusive interview with AFP released earlier, the defiant Syrian strongman vowed to recapture Syria as a whole and keep “fighting terrorism.”
“He’s deluded if he thinks that there’s a military solution to the conflict in Syria,” deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
“All we’re looking at, if the Syrian regime continues the fighting, is more bloodshed, more hardship and, frankly, a greater hardening of positions on either side.”
Assad spoke hours before world powers agreed on an ambitious plan to cease hostilities in Syria within a week, but doubts soon emerged over its viability, especially because it did not include Daesh or Al-Qaeda’s local branch. “The proof is in the pudding,” Toner cautioned, in reference to the deal. “We need to see action on the ground on the part of those parties, and that includes the regime. That includes the opposition. They need to stop the fighting, and then we can determine who is part of this process and who is not.”
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces were poised to advance into the Daesh stronghold of Raqqa province and allied Russian jets kept up air strikes on rebel-held towns north of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday.
An advance into Raqqa would re-establish a Syrian government foothold in the province for the first time since 2014 and may be aimed at pre-empting any move by Gulf forces to send ground forces to fight Daesh militants in Syria.
The Syrian army announced the capture of more ground in the northern Aleppo area, where its advances backed by allied Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian fighters have cut the main rebel supply route from Turkey into opposition-held parts of Aleppo.
If its forces retake Aleppo and seal the Turkish border, Damascus would deal a crushing blow to the insurgents who were on the march until Russia intervened last September, shoring up Assad’s rule and paving the way to the current advances.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called on Russia on Saturday to stop bombing civilians in Syria, saying this was crucial for achieving peace in the country.
“France respects Russia and its interests ... But we know that to find the path to peace again, the Russian bombing of civilians has to stop,” Valls said in a speech at a security conference in Munich.
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