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News ID: 49064
Publish Date : 19 January 2018 - 21:55

Syria Slams U.S. Military Presence as ‘Act of Aggression’

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syria has strongly condemned a U.S. plan to maintain its military presence in the Arab country as interference in its internal affairs and a blatant violation of international law.
"The internal affairs in any country in the world is an exclusive right of the people of this country, thus nobody has the right to only give his opinion in that because this violates the international law and contradicts the most important theories of the constitutional law,” Syria's state news agency, SANA, quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying in a statement.
The statement comes after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said U.S. troops would stay in Syria for the foreseeable future to defeat terrorists, and added that the U.S. would not fund the reconstruction of any part of Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is in power.
According to figures the Pentagon released in December, there are at least 2,000 troops in Syria as well as a diplomatic presence in cities such as Kobani.
The Syrian statement further said U.S. presence and all of Washington’s actions in the Arab country are aimed at protecting the Daesh terrorist group, which was created by the former American administration.
The Damascus government "does not need a single dollar from the United States for reconstruction because this dollar is stained with the blood of the Syrians,” the statement added.
Tillerson elaborated on a U.S. plan to further weaken Syria, already shattered by almost seven years of war, to push for a faster political transition in the country. "We will discourage economic relationships between the Assad regime and any other country... Once Assad is gone from power, the United States will gladly encourage the normalization of economic relationships between Syria and other nations.”
Contrary to the U.S. position, Russia has once and again expressed support for Assad, and criticized the U.S. for seeking "regime change.” Moscow’s envoy to Syria said last month that he saw no reason why Assad "shouldn’t or wouldn’t run for another presidential term.”
Tillerson tried to portray President Donald Trump’s policy toward Syria as something better than President Barack Obama’s approach, calling it better than "more years of wishful thinking.”
Trump administration officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, had previously disclosed elements of the policy but Tillerson’s speech was meant to formalize and clearly define it.