Assad says Syria is not isolated and puts conditions on relations with Damascus

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad claimed on Saturday that Damascus is not isolated in the world, and put conditions on those countries which want to re-open diplomatic links, Huff Post has reported.

“There will be no security cooperation, embassy opening or role for states which say they are seeking solutions,” Assad told a security conference in Damascus, “unless they cut their relations with terror and terrorists.” He always describes the Syrian opposition, jihadists and opposition fighters as terrorists and calls their engagement with his regime forces terror. “We are not in isolation, as they think.”

#SyrianUnrest

The US and many other states severed relations with Damascus when the Syrian revolution turned violent in 2011. In May, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that French President Emanuel Macron was planning to resume ties with Syria. However, the French Foreign Ministry denied this, insisting that it is “not on the agenda.”

France is considered to be one of the prominent supporters of the Syrian opposition and has always insisted that Assad must quit as part of any solution for the war-torn country.

In 2015, after it was targeted by a number of terrorist attacks, France put the fight against Islamist Jihadists at the top of its agenda, mainly those in Iraq and Syria. Officially, it is still insisting that Assad must quit.