Moscow, Nov 11 (Sputnik) Top government officials in the United States admitted long ago their support of al-Qaeda terrorist organization (banned in Russia), which has grown to be a US proxy in its fight against other countries, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with the RT broadcaster.
“These facts started with the fact that the American officials before anyone else said in their own words like John Kerry, like Hillary Clinton and many others when they talked about their role in supporting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in order to be a tool against the Soviet Union at that time, they said that. This is their modus operandi; it is not something we invented,” Assad said when asked to explain why the US and other NATO governments would want to support al-Qaeda, a claim that sounds often in the non-Western international community but might be thought of as ridiculous by people in the US.
According to Assad, despite the United States’ bitter experience with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it is now prepared to fight anyone who challenges its at-risk hegemony and employs all kinds of measures to that end, even terrorists.
“They need tools; they noticed that in Iraq it did not work by sending their army. They lost a lot, and they paid the price even inside the United States. So, it is much easier for them to send a proxy. So, al-Qaeda is a proxy against the Syrian government, against the Russian government and the Iranian government,” the Syrian president stated.
Assad went on pointing to the quick rise of al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State terrorist group (IS, ISIS, banned in Russia) and its insurgents being armed with US munitions to explain his point.
“How did ISIS rise suddenly in 2014?! Out of nowhere! out of nothing! In Iraq and Syria at the same time, with American armaments?! It is very clear. How could they smuggle millions of barrels of oil to Turkey under the supervision of American aircraft, how? Because the Americans wanted to use them against the Syrian Army. It is not something we said; the Americans said that, and the facts said the same story,” the Syrian president noted.
The armed conflict between the Syrian government and opposition groups, including terrorists, began in 2011. By 2016, terrorist forces were significantly subdued, while the government and opposition concluded a ceasefire, with Russia, Iran and Turkey acting as its guarantors.
On October 27, US President Donald Trump claimed that the US forces in Syria hunted down IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a special operation.
