Alwaght- Syria would welcome an increased Russian military presence at its seaports, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with Russian newspapers published on Friday.
Following Vladimir Putin’s demands for an immediate cessation of military activities in Yemen, President Bashar al-Assad’s commented during the interview that “with complete confidence that we welcome any widening of the Russian presence in the eastern Mediterranean and on Syrian coasts and ports,” including the port of Tartus. "For us, the larger this presence in our neighbourhood, the better it is for stability in this region," al-Assad told the journalists.
Russia controls a naval base in Tartus along Syria's western shores that includes warships, barracks and warehouses.
The Syrian President also welcomed Russia's role in hosting a second round of peace talks but said external players must not influence the negotiating parties. “The negotiating parties must be independent and must reflect what the Syrian people want… people would not accept that their future, their fate, or their rules are decided from outside,” he remarked. The Western-backed opposition National Coalition that insists on al-Assad's ouster has announced it will boycott the April 6-9 talks.
Al-Assad stressed that the Western countries including the US, France and Britain are not seeking a political solution in Syria. The Syrian President believes that the West is only interested in destroying the government. “They want to turn us into puppets. I do not think that the West has a political solution. It does not want one. When I say the West, I am primarily referring to the US, France, and the UK. Other countries are secondary.”
To put an end to the ongoing war in Syria between the government troops and terrorist militants, such countries as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some European countries should stop arming the terrorists, al-Assad said. President Bashar al-Assad believes that these countries would prefer to retain the terrorist force to blackmail different countries, he said.
The rate of airstrikes conducted by the anti-ISIS coalition member states, is only about 10 raids a day on the territory of both Syria and Iraq, al-Assad said. “The Syrian Air Force, which is very small in comparison to this coalition, conducts in a single day many times the number of the airstrikes conducted by a coalition which includes 60 countries,” He added. “This doesn’t make sense. This shows the lack of seriousness,” the Syrian President said, “They don’t want to get rid of ISIS completely.”
“There is no serious effort to fight terrorism, and what is being achieved by the Syrian forces on the ground equals in one day what is being achieved by these states in weeks,” al-Assad said. “An anti-terrorist coalition cannot consist of countries which are themselves supporters of terrorism.”
Al-Assad goes on to warn of the decision to send peacekeepers into Syria, considering it as unacceptable and could have dangerous consequences. If implemented, the move would mean recognizing ISIS.
“The peacekeeping force is usually based between countries at war with each other. And addition, when someone talks about sending peacekeepers to deal with ISIS, that acknowledges ISIS as a state. Such rhetoric is unacceptable and dangerous,” al-Assad said.
The Syrian President assured that Damascus has no direct contact with the US and is not involved in any discussions. “Certain ideas get passed down through third parties, but that cannot be considered as serious dialogue,” al-Assad said, adding that the only option for his country is to wait for the US policies to change.
According to the Syria leader’s opinion, there are two political camps in the US – a peace-leaning one and a more radical, aggressive one. The former is “a minority,” while the latter calls all the shots in foreign policy.
The hawks in the second camp support aggressive ideas such as direct US military involvement in Syria and Iraq, as well as sending weapons to Ukraine.
“There is a connection between the Syrian crisis and what is happening in Ukraine. Firstly, because both countries are important for Russia. Secondly, because there is a goal in both cases to weaken Russia and create puppet states,” al-Assad told Russian reporters.
At the end of his interview, al-Assad stressed that Russia’s presence provided a certain sense of balance in the region. He added that in the past, the more visible Moscow’s influence was in the region, the more stable the area became.
