Bashar al-Assad is adamant that the U.S. is not serious about defeating the threat from ISIS. Speaking from Damascus, the Syrian president sat down with NBC News on Wednesday in an interview that expanded across a number of topics, including the Syrian war, ISIS, his legacy, and the United States.
Assad said the airstrikes the U.S. was performing against ISIS in Syria are “counterproductive” and that the country’s whole plan is simply to overthrow the Syrian government:
“The reality is telling that, since the beginning of the American airstrikes, the terrorism has been expanding and prevailing,” Assad explained. “It only shrinked when the Russians intervened. We wanted to defeat those terrorists, while the United States wanted to manage those groups in order to topple the government in Syria.”
On the topic of Syria’s civil war, in which more than 250,000 people have died, Assad was quick to point out he is still in power, and President Obama’s calling for an ousting have gone unnoticed.
“He’s failed, but that doesn’t mean I win because for him the war is to remove me … for me the war is to restore Syria. If we can get rid of those terrorists, if we can restore the stability in Syria, this is where we win. Otherwise, you cannot talk about winning.”
After Assad’s interview, it was reported by CNN the U.S. was trying to verify that it had killed high-ranking ISIS commander Omar al-Shishani in an airstrike in Iraq. The U.S. had targeted him over the last few days, as it was previously thought the U.S. had killed him in Syria. ISIS’ media group, Amaq, has seemed to confirm al-Shishani was killed.