Syrian President Bashar al-Assad SANA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
Washington wants ISIS terrorists to capture the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, President Bashar Assad said in an interview to the Russian state-run news agency Sputnik.
“They [the United States] are against ISIS, but at the same time, they are supporting ISIS and they allow them to cross the border from Iraq into Syria,” he said, adding that “It means they helped ISIS to come to Deir Ez-Zor [Deir Ezzor] and to undermine the Syrian Army who are defending Deir ez-Zor. They wanted Deir ez-Zor to fall into the hands of ISIS.”
Hint: Deir Ezzor is a strategic city located in eastern Syria and surrounded with a notable number of gas and oil fields. The US-led coalition and its “partners” on the ground in Syria could use the “war on ISIS” as a pretext to capturing this strategic town. However, now Deir Ezzor and its air base are mostly controlled by the Syrian Republican Guard that repells ISIS attempts to capture the city.
In the same intervview, Assad added that Western powers use the Geneva talks as a “political umbrella” for terrorist groups.
“First of all, our estimation of Geneva is that it hasn’t started yet; till this moment, nothing, it’s a still-born, it’s dead,” he said.
Comparing the joint Iranian and Russian efforts with the actions of the US-led block, Assad said:
“If you look at the other party, the Western bloc with their allies in the region and their proxies, of course, they are in the other side. They are using these events only as a political umbrella for the terrorists, not for the political solution,” Assad said.
This is just as ridiculous as the claim of Assad that almost all kurds love him.
US might like the SDF to take DeZ, that might be correct. IS?
The man is taking too many medicines.
When did he say so? (here is no mention of it)
Bashar made that claim some time ago.
Any reference?
There are several interviews with Assad published where he said that kurds do not want a federal state and that most voted for him of his party in the past,
I suggest you google interviews with Assad and kurds.
1. what you say now is completely different from your original assertion -“Assad [clim] that almost all kurds love him”≠”kurds do not want a federal state and that most voted for him of his party in the past” 2. If you claim something about someone then you have to be ready to back it up with reference and not just ask your readers google it themself!
Lets think about what he said. They want ISIS to take the city so that the US and it’s partners in turn take it from ISIS. The US can’t directly take it from the Syrian government because Russia and Iran wouldn’t stand for it. So yes, what he’s saying makes perfect sense. The US and it’s partners want control of a very important area.
Maaydin/abu bukhumal and the border crossing is more important then the city. And most likely they will try to use the “FSA” on Jordan border more likely.
Let’s consider the fact that ISIS hasn’t been able to defeat the defenders of Deir Azzor, even when that criminal gang was at peak strength. Now let’s consider how important the area may be. It does have large deposits of a very low grade heavy sour crude which are becoming depleted, so require EOR (enhanced oil recovery) methods to get it out of the wells. The Syrians inject natural gas from nearby fields to accomplish that. The Syrian government exported most of it since it didn’t yield much in useful products when refined. Half of it is asphalt (hence very heavy) with a lot of kerosene and mineral spirits, a little gasoline and lubrication oils with all laced with sulfur (hence sour). The Syrians mixed it with lighter Iraqi crude (that came in via a pipeline in the SE) at the T3 pumping station so it would be easier to push thru the pipeline to the coast and easier to sell since the buyer could get more products out of it. There’s plenty of heavy sour crude around the world with Syria’s deposits being a drop in the bucket.
US war by proxy.
You should try to follow this going back to the start where John Mccain has meetings with the people who has been chosen to be the top ISIS leaders just before this started and then look at all the American supplied weapons, cars and equipment that ISIS received. I understand if you just join in on this topic now that it looks like the US is truly against ISIS and is only in Syria to defeat terrorists…
If IS gets Dez then the SDF and US have pretext to get the city as fighting IS..
They would have to cross the river, which is unlikely. They can get all the oil and gas because it’s on their side of the river.
He must be worried that the general public in contested regions may warm up to the southern FSA just like they did to the SDF, other wise he wouldn’t be babbling such nonsense. Syria is going to need billions of dollars for reconstruction and bad mouthing the World’s rich uncle will make him less likely to contribute a substantial amount.
Generally speaking I can imagine arabs in the east and north east wanting a federal state as that would give them some control over their regional budgets, development plans.
East and north east Syria have been treated as internal colonies. No industrialisation, obligatory cultivation of some crops like wheat and cotton but no processing thereof, lack of higher education facilities etc etc. In statistics about Syria, north east and east Syria is poor, undereducated, underdeveloped.
Pity you don’t take yours… all of them.
Actually your pathetic strawman arguments, dumb comparisons and constant whining are ridiculous…. even retarded.
Whining about what?
Your ranting?
Deir Ezzore is smack bang in middle of eastern Syria and last SAA holdout in eastern region. As long as it is SAA controlled the NATO/ GCC Plan B to partition Syria is compromised as Syrian state presence there is impediment to partitioning of eastern corridor from Jordan to Turkey. Should ISIS suddenly take all of Deir Ezzore Province after all these years – then a third party military force – anyone from SDF to US ground forces to ISIS factions simply re-branded as FSA – could be used to ‘liberate’ it from ISIS in future. Then either the NATO or GCC proxies would hold the whole of eastern Syria’s ground and be in position to dictate future situation in east. So yeah, Assad, who after all, is rather informed on topic of Syria, is right about US plans for Deir Ezzore.
Are you forgetting kawbab and Qamasihi airport since those are in the Eastern Syria?
Isis is the intermediary occupier from which land can be “legally” annexed. This is the USA/Israel logic on how to use Isis. This strategy is ages old.
A small fact : Golan Heights have been Syrian for 49 years (1918-1967) and 50 years Israeli (1967 to 2017)
Before that, both Israel and Syria were part of the Ottoman Empire, so Israel can just as rightfully point to a shared history.
Half the present Golan population is jewish and half is druse, of wich some 20% have taken Israeli citizenship.
IDF has a Golani batallion and the majority of which, including the officers, are druse.
The importance of Deir Ezzor is strategic. It’s the only important city on Euphrates river that still belongs to Syria and it’s also a bridge to the northeast of the country and to Iraq. All the battles for Palmira only make sense as a preparation to break the siege on Deir Ezzor, linking Damascus to Mosul and to Bagdad/Teheran. I hope Iraq, after cleaning Mosul, moves along the river to help Syria to break that siege.
Luigi you got it right . Assad is not blind to strategic reality , thank God .. My hope , is the Iraqi militias , leave Mosul for the US special forces to clean up , and back up SAA , now , before the US sends in a swarm of “moderate rebels” .
Russia, Syria and Iran should send large reinforcments in DZ and liberate whole area till Iraq border
China needs to send 100k troops… now THAT would stir up the HATOstani war-mongers and their Sunni jihadist proxies….
US air force directly helped ISIS in september by bombing and killing 100 syrian soldiers. It was not a mistake.
That was a case of the US Deep State via SecDef Ash Carter telling Obongo and Herman Munster that peace overtures to Assad were… unacceptable…
The US is planning a massive invasion of syria, probably 100k strong from jordan. The operation will be sold as war on ISIS, thats why they want to give Deir Ezzor to ISIS, in order to justify capturing it by force.
and russia is still sitting on wc
I think russia realizes that fighting the Sunni access of Turkey, Jordan, SA, will be expensive, and they are willing to help Assad win, if the price is right. There is also the matter of several air bases and naval stations. Russia is constructing a super carrier, which may or may not be based out of a special facility in Tartus.
but with such !help! finally will lose everything in syria
and the reputation in the world will be disasterous. nobody will trust russia, everybody will see only a week country. russia stays completely alone and isolated.
I don’t think so. I think after many years and jihadi blood fertilizing Syrian soil, the SAA will prevail. Russia is used to dealing with a world aligned against them. Eventually, Syria will be reunited. But who knows how many children the jihadis will kill between now and then.
Be interesting if Syria could do the same in the UK, France and US by setting up a proxy terrorist army. Then let us see if they like it.