DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused the West of hypocrisy and lies, saying that the United States is the “most rogue state in the world.”
In an interview with Russia’s RT Arabic television news network, Assad condemned a surprise visit by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Mark Milley to an army base in Syria’s northeast, which is under the control of the Kurdish-led and so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), saying that the unannounced trip shows that the U.S. is the most rogue state in the world.
In his snap visit on March 4, Milley met U.S. troops stationed in areas of war-torn Syria under the control of the SDF.
About 900 U.S. soldiers are deployed in several bases and posts across northeastern Syria, in what Washington claims to be as part of the fight against Daesh remnants.
Following the visit, a Syrian foreign ministry official said that Damascus “strongly condemns the illegal visit of the American chairman of the chiefs of staff to an illegal American military base in northeast Syria.”
Milley’s visit was “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity” of Syrian territory, the official added, according to SANA, calling on “the U.S. administration to immediately cease its systematic and continued violation of international law and support for separatist armed groups.”
Heading a ranking a “large ministerial delegation,” the president of Syria arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In another interview, Assad said U.S. occupation forces have turned their military base in the Arab country’s strategic al-Tanf region near the borders with Iraq and Jordan into a bastion for terrorists.
“We are in a state of direct confrontation with terrorist groups near al-Tanf region. Al-Tanf serves entirely as a base for training terrorists, and has no purpose other than that. What benefits do American forces drive from their deployment in the desert region?” Assad, who is in Moscow on an official trip, said in an exclusive interview with the Arabic-language service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency.
He added, “There is no doubt that the U.S. has barracks for terrorists, where tens of thousands of them and their families are accommodated. They are transferred between different areas from time to time in order to carry out terror attacks against Syrian army soldiers, and cause chaos. We are quite sure of these moves, and have abundant pieces of evidence in this regard.”
Assad’s remarks come days after Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources, reported that U.S. occupation forces had airlifted dozens of members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group from a prison in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah to nearby military facilities before transferring them to al-Tanf base.
A number of captured Daesh terrorists have already confessed to close cooperation with U.S. military forces stationed at al-Tanf base in the central Syrian province of Homs on carrying out various acts of terror and sabotage.
During confessions broadcast on Syria’s state-run television network in May 2020, several terrorists revealed that they were instructed by American forces to target Syrian government troops in and around the ancient city of Palmyra, the Tiyas Military Airbase – also known as the T-4 Airbase, the Shaer gas field as well as nearby oil wells.