ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has warned there will be Syrian “military resistance” if America does not leave the country in comments made to two Russian TV channels.
The Syrian President spoke to state-owned Russia 24 and Rossiya Segodnya this week.
"We're keeping the oil. We have the oil. The oil is secure. We left troops behind only for the oil," US President Donald Trump told media on Wednesday, while sitting next to his Turkish counterpart Recep Teyyip Erdogan.
In early October, the US President decided to pull US troops out of Kurdish-controlled Northern Syria, effectively greenlighting a Turkish invasion of areas controlled by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Weeks later, however, US troops were ordered back into Syria to guard oil fields, mainly located in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor.
US officials have said that the US forces are trying to prevent Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists from retaking the oil fields, which were a major source of revenue for the terror group during their bloody reign across Iraq and Syria.
Against this backdrop, Assad threatened military resistance against US forces.
“Occupation will give birth to resistance, a military resistance. The American presence in Syria will give birth to a military resistance that will lead to losses among Americans, thus making the Americans leave,” he said.
Syria “is not an exception” to the experiences of America in Afghanistan and Iraq, Assad warned.
He also alluded to Iraqi resistance to the 2003 US invasion and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, stating that the US “won’t have an easy life” if its troops remain in the area.
On February 7, 2018 Syrians, backed by Russian mercenaries, did try to advance into US-controlled areas in Deir ez-Zor province, but were met with deadly force.
In a four-hour long battle, 200-300 Syrians and Russian mercenaries were killed.
Assad implicitly referred to the SDF as enabling the US presence in Syria. The Kurdish forces closely cooperate with the US in the fight against ISIS.
“I always say that the occupier cannot come [into a country] if it doesn’t have its agents in the country. It is difficult for an occupier to live in an environment where everyone is the enemy,” posited Assad.
“The first, closest, and most peaceful solution is for us to unite as Syrians, around patriotic understandings. Then the Americans will go out. They won’t be able to remain for either the oil or anything else,” added Assad.
Assad also claimed that the US is “mimicking” Nazi policy and accused the US of “stepping on international law.”
He added that Syria will submit a complaint to the UN over US control of its oil, but the Syrian president seemed doubtful of potential UN assistance.
Assad went on further to lambast both the US and President Trump, describing the US as “built as a political system based on gangs.”
“The American President doesn’t represent a state. He represents the CEO of a company,” he claimed.
The Syrian civil war is in its eighth year, and much of the country lies in ruins. Some parts of the north are controlled by Turkish-backed Syrian proxies, while the majority of eastern and northern regions are controlled by Kurdish-led SDF, a mixture of Arab and Kurdish fighters.
Propped up by both Iran and Russia, the Syrian President has been able to win back much of the country from rebels and Islamist groups. Currently, he has set his eyes on the jihadi-dominated northwestern province of Idlib.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also rejected the US presence in Syria, labeling it as “illegitimate” following a BRICS summit, which brings together five major emerging global economies.
"There are questions about the eastern bank of the Euphrates river, where militants are still operating, and where there is still foreign military presence, including US presence. I have said many times that we don't consider their presence there as legitimate," Putin told reporters.
"This military presence is illegal," Putin asserted as it is neither “on the invitation of the Syrian government or in the framework of a UN Security Council resolution”.
