US Slams Assad's Pledge to Liberate Entire Syria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A US State Department spokesman slammed the recent remarks by Syrian President Bashar Assad over the liberation of the entire Arab country from the control of the terrorists, saying there is no military solution to the crisis.
Assad said in an interview with the news agency AFP published on Friday that he would keep "fighting terrorism" and that will liberate the whole country from the Takfiri terrorists.
"He (Assad) is not a legitimate leader for his people… He is deluded if he thinks there's a military solution to the conflict in Syria," Mark Toner said, the official website of the US Department of State reported.
“We’ve seen this wax and wane over now five years, but all we’re looking at if the Syrian regime continues the fighting is more bloodshed, more hardship, and frankly, a greater hardening of positions on either side,” he added.
Syria has been entangled in civil war since March 2011. Takfiri terrorist groups controls parts of the Arab country, mostly in the east.
Meanwhile, Russia’s aerial support for the Syrian forces has given fresh impetus to the fight against the foreign-backed terrorists.
Since late September 2015, Russia has been carrying out bombings against Daesh terrorists in Syria, after Russia’s parliament granted President Putin authorization to deploy the country’s air force abroad.
More than 250,000 people have died in Syria -overwhelmingly civilians- and around 4 million Syrian people are now refugees in other countries. Around 8 million others have been displaced internally.