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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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14Jul16
Assad accuses U.S. of using terror groups for regime change in Syria
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the U.S. administration wants to lead terror groups to bring down the Syrian state.
In an interview with the American NBC TV, whose content was published by state news agency SANA on Thursday, Assad said the Syrian state is serious in fighting the Islamic State (IS) group and other terror groups that are linked with al-Qaida in Syria.
He said while Syria wanted the elimination of all the terrorist groups, the U.S. administration wanted to run those groups in a bid to see the downfall of the Syrian government.
Assad questioned the real intentions of the United States, saying if Washington was serious about fighting the terror groups, Damascus would have found mutual interest with the United States.
"Unless they really want to fight those terrorists and defeat them, we cannot talk about a mutual interest," he said.
"They didn't do that," Assad said. "IS has been operating in Iraq since 2006, and they didn't try to defeat them."
"Why does the U.S. fight IS now? It's not fighting them," he said. "The IS has expanded also in Syria under the sight of aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition, which could have seen the IS convoys using Syrian oilfields and transporting the oil into Turkey, but they didn't try to attack even one convoy."
He said the Russian military intervention against IS has dropped the mask hiding the intentions of the United States.
Assad said U.S. officials say something and do something different. "They don't have good intensions toward Syria."
Meanwhile, he stressed that only the Syrian people are to determine who the president of their country is, who will the president be, and when he should leave office.
Asked about the death of veteran U.S. journalist Marie Catherine Colvin, who was killed during shelling on rebel-held areas in the central city of Homs in 2012, Assad said the Syrian troops had no idea Colvin was there at the time.
He said Colvin was responsible for her death because she entered the country illegally.
[Source: Xinhua, Damascus, 14Jul16]
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 | This document has been published on 15Jul16 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |