Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was open to the idea of a coalition against the Islamic State group, but indicated there was little chance of it happening with his enemies, casting further doubt on a Russian plan to forge an alliance against the militant group.
The initiative proposed by Russia, a vital ally of al-Assad, would involve the Syrian government joining regional states that have backed Syrian rebels in a shared fight against the Islamic State, which controls wide areas of Syria and Iraq.
In an interview broadcast on Tuesday, Assad said the Syrian government would not reject such an alliance, though it made no sense “that states which stood with terrorism would be the states that will fight terrorism.”
He was referring to governments, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, that have backed insurgent groups fighting to topple him in the brutal four-year-long civil war that has killed an estimated 250,000 people and shattered the country.
“A small possibility remains that these states decided to repent, or realized they were moving in the wrong direction, or maybe for reasons of pure self-interest, they got worried that this terrorism is heading towards their countries, and so they decided to combat terrorism,” al-Assad said.
“We have no objection. The important thing is to be able to form an alliance to fight terrorism,” he said in the interview with al-Manar TV, which is controlled by Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The comments echo previous remarks by the Syrian minister of foreign affairs, who has said such an alliance would need “a miracle.”
Saudi Arabia has ruled out any coalition with al-Assad. Like the US, Saudi Arabia wants to see al-Assad gone from power, blames him for the rise of the Islamic State and says he cannot be a partner in the fight against the group.
The US is leading an alliance in a campaign against the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in both Syria and Iraq. Russia has said the US should cooperate with al-Assad to fight the Islamic State.
Support from Russia, Iran, and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been vital to al-Assad during the conflict.
The conclusion of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers including the US has been followed by a spate of high-level diplomatic contacts aimed at trying to advance solutions to the Syrian war.
Previous diplomacy on Syria has been a complete failure.
Diplomats say Iran and Russia are the prime movers behind the latest push.
The contacts included a meeting between the Syrian and Omani ministers of foreign affairs this month. Oman has quietly brokered resolutions to several disputes in the Middle East.
Al-Assad said it was obvious that Oman had a role to play in helping to resolve the Syrian crisis.
“The meetings now aim to gauge the Syrian view on finding a solution and at the same time they [Oman] are gauging the regional and international climate ... to reach something specific,” he said. “It is too early to talk about the role that Oman can play. We must wait for the continuation of this dialogue.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to