Syrian President: Trump could be a ‘natural ally’

Commenting on remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan about Turkey’s interests outside the geographical borders of his country, mainly in Syria’s Aleppo and Iraq’s Mosul, President Assad said: “You’re talking about sick person; he’s megalomaniac President, he is not stable”. “Bombing Aleppo and its population is not fighting against terrorism, as the regime pretends.What the regime and its allies are doing in Aleppo is actually fueling terrorism, it’s fueling radicalization”.

The U.S. now leads an global coalition conducting air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the current administration also backs rebels fighting Assad. But Manbij was recently liberated from IS by Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States.

Nevertheless, Basburg said Turkey’s interests in Syria have evolved since the war began in 2011, in large part because of the role of Kurdish militants, whom the Turks consider an enemy.

Another ship in the flotilla, the frigate Admiral Grigorovich also fired cruise missiles at Syrian targets, the minister said.

Activists in Batbo village posted the names of the 18 online after Wednesday’s airstrike.

In Wager, a rebel-held enclave on the edge of the besieged city of Homs, mortars and rockets killed at least nine people and wounded 30 others, according to contacts reached there. It was unclear who carried out the airstrike in Batbo.

Anyone that provides aircraft to Syria’s commercial airlines, does business with the transportation and telecom sectors controlled by the Syrian government, or supports the country’s energy industry also would be subject to sanctions, according to the legislation.

Hisham Skeif, a member of one of the local councils in Aleppo, said that the Assad regime was trying to sow chaos, forcing desperate civilians to raid the warehouses for grain. Conflicting accounts of casualties are common in the chaotic aftermath of airstrikes.

Still, Trump’s victory has caused concern on both sides of the aisle that the president-elect may be even more reluctant than Obama to turn the screws on Assad and his Russian supporters.

“By the way, President Putin himself has told me … that he has told Assad twice: “Listen, we are helping you, but there is a moment when we will be expecting you to actually apply a political devolution”, de Mistura said.

On Wednesday, Erdogan announced Turkish-backed forces were close to retaking al-Bab, a city about 20 miles east of Aleppo, from the Islamic State group. That’s why I said we don’t pin a lot of hopes of changing administrations because that context has been going on for more than fifty years now, and that’s expected. “There is resistance now, but I don’t think it will last much longer”, he said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, pictured waving earlier this year after speaking to the Syrian parliament, said a possible shift in US foreign policy under President-elect Donald Trump toward Russia’s ideas for defeating the Islamic State in Syria could make the United States a “natural ally” for his country.

“Of course, when he’s [the UN Secretary General] objective, he can play an important role in dealing with different officials in the United Nations in order to bring the policies of the different states, mainly Russian Federation and the United States, toward more cooperation and more stability regarding Syria”, Assad said in a Tuesday interview to the Portuguese RTP broadcaster, released on Tuesday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responded to the election of President-elect Donald Trump for the first time.

“The Russians are fighting for us, for the world, and for their self”, he said.

In the buildup to last week’s American presidential election, Trump said he planned to work with Assad to battle against the Islamic State group in Syria.

More than half a million innocent civilians have been killed in Syria in the almost 6-year war which could have been easily avoided had Mr Obama acted more sensibly and responsibly.