President of Syria: United States Has Yet to Actually Attack the Islamic State

On March 12 in Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Assad pointed out during talks with a delegation visiting the city from the European Parliament that some European countries’ wrongful policies toward Syria have led to the spread of terrorism within it.

According to news from the Syrian Arab News Agency, the head of this European delegation was Javier Couso, vice-chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. The purpose of the delegation’s visit was to discuss how to develop relations between Europe and Syria. During the day’s meeting, Assad and the delegation mostly discussed European Union policies to attack terrorism within Syria; that is to say, how to quickly and effectively end issues such as the Syrian Civil War.

Assad stated that in the past few years, some Western news outlets have released large amounts of fake news concerning Syria’s domestic situation, which has misled the public and led to the loss of media credibility. He emphasized that some of the wrongful domestic policies that Europe has carried out concerning Syria, such as “supporting extremism and terrorism” and “imposing economic sanctions” have led to the spread of terrorism within Syria, and that a large number of its people have become destitute and homeless.

In response to these statements, the delegation from the European Parliament stated that it would dedicate itself to revising its “incorrect knowledge” about the Syrian war and would exert effort to improve European-Syrian relations, removing economic sanctions on Syria to safeguard the country’s safety and stability.

According to another report by the Russian media, the Russian army has recently increased its number of troops in the northern Syrian city of Manbij; the soldiers of both Russia and Syria are jointly defending this center of military affairs. The Russian army is carrying out the task by helping the Syrian army in this border area.

In addition, according to the report, U.S. ground forces have also shown up in Manbij, but the U.S. Defense Department has not yet commented on the goal of this military deployment. While being interviewed by the media, Assad commented in response, “Any foreign army that has not beforehand been invited, discussed its plans, or received permission to enter Syria is invading it, no matter whether it’s the U.S. army, the Turkish army, or any other country’s army.” Assad further commented that the Trump administration has not yet carried out any “actual action” to fight the Islamic State organization.