ISIL Established under US Supervision in Iraq: Syrian President

“According to what some American officials said, including Hillary Clinton, Al Qaeda was created by the Americans with the help of Saudi Wahabi money and ideology, and of course, many other officials said the same in the United States. And ISIL and al-Nusra, they are offshoots of Al Qaeda,” Assad said in an interview with the Italian TV channel RAI UNO.
 
He added that ISIL was established under the American supervision in Iraq, and the terrorist group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, "was in the American prisons, and he was put in New York in their prisons, and he was released by them."

Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with Takfiri terrorists from various groups, including the ISIL, currently controlling parts of it.

In another interview with the French Magazine Valeurs Actuelles, Assad said that you cannot fight terrorism while you follow the wrong policies that support terrorism directly or indirectly.

He urged European countries, France in particular, to change their policy toward the fight against terrorism.

“If the French government is not serious about fighting terrorism, we wouldn’t waste our time cooperating with a country, or a government, let’s say, with an institution that is supporting terrorism,” Assad stressed, adding that his final message to French President Francois Hollande is that “be serious when you talk about fighting terrorists.”

“You need to change your policy, to have one standard regarding this and not multiple standards, and to have that country be part of an alliance with countries that only fight terrorism, not countries that support terrorism and are fighting terrorism,” the Syrian president noted.

President Assad also noted that whoever fights terrorism anywhere in the world, it is actually protecting the rest of the world.

“When you fight terrorism in Syria, you’re defending Russia and defending Europe and defending other continents,” he added.