Iran Press/Middle East: In an interview with Al-Sourea and Al-Ikhbariya TV, Bashar al Asad elaborated on the role of Iran, Russia, and Syria in the current situation, "We, the Russians and the Iranians are involved in the same military battle and the same political battle. We are always in talks with each other to determine the circumstances which allow for an operation to go ahead."
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency, he continued: "On several occasions, we agreed on specific timing for a certain operation, which was later postponed because of military or political developments. This dialogue is normal. There are issues we see on the internal arena, and there are issues seen by Iran on the regional arena and there are those issues seen by the Russians in the international arena."
Assad went on to say, "We have an integrated approach based on dialogue. In the past month, I have held five meetings with Russian and Iranian officials, so less than a week apart. Between every two meetings, there were military and political developments such that what had been agreed in the first meeting was then changed or modified in the second, third and fourth meetings and the last of which was yesterday. The fast pace of developments makes it necessary sometimes to postpone operations."
He added: "On the other hand, we have contacts with civilians in those areas. We really try hard to make it possible for civilians to move from those areas into our areas in order to save lives; moreover, if a political solution was possible, and sometimes we succeeded in finding such a solution, it would save the lives of Syrian soldiers, which is a priority that we should not ignore."
"So, there are many elements, which are difficult to go into now, which affect this decision and postpone it; it is not a matter of pressure. The Russians are as enthusiastic about fighting terrorism as we are, otherwise, why would they send their fighter jets? The timing depends on dialogue," he said.
Bashar al-Assad stressed that the scenario broadcast by the US about the killing operation of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS terrorists, is part of the US tricks and we should not believe what they say unless they provide evidence for their claim.
Regarding the killing of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, Syrian President said: "Baghdadi represents ISIS, and ISIS represents a type of doctrine, which is an extremist Wahhabi doctrine. This type of thought is more than two centuries old. As long as this thought is alive and has not receded, this means that the death of Baghdadi, or even the death of ISIS as a whole, will have no effect on this extremist thought." 101/211/219
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