Al-Assad: No to Talks with US, Syria Informed about Strikes on ’ISIL’
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad confirmed that Damascus receives "information" about air strikes by the US-led coalition against the "ISIL" terrorist group in Syria.
In an interview with BBC, al-Assad stated that "they convey a message, a general message."
"There is no dialogue. There's, let's say, information, but not dialogue."
In the interview, al-Assad ruled out joining the coalition against "ISIL".
"No, definitely we cannot and we don't have the will and we don't want, for one simple reason -- because we cannot be in an alliance with countries which support terrorism."
Al-Assad stressed that he was not against co-operating over "ISIL" with other countries. But he would refuse to talk with American officials, he said, "because they don't talk to anyone, unless he's a puppet", an apparent reference to Western- and Gulf Arab-backed opposition leaders.
"And they easily trample over international law, which is about our sovereignty now, so they don't talk to us, we don't talk to them."
The Head of the Syrian state further mentioned that US officials "easily trample over international law, which is about our sovereignty now, so they don't talk to us, we don't talk to them."
Al-Assad told the BBC that there had been no direct co-operation since air strikes began in Syria in September.
He also denied that Syrian government forces had been dropping barrel bombs indiscriminately on rebel-held areas, killing thousands of civilians.
In parallel, he dismissed the allegation as a "childish story".
"We have bombs, missiles and bullets... There is [are] no barrel bombs, we don't have barrels."
Al-Assad insisted that the Syrian army would never use them in a place where people lived.
"I know about the army. They use bullets, missiles and bombs. I haven't heard of the army using barrels, or maybe, cooking pots."
Regarding the US support to so-called "moderate" militants, al-Assad said it was a "pipe-dream". He argued that there were no moderates, only extremists from "ISIL" and al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front.
Source: BBC, Edited by website team
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