Saudi Arabia, Kurdish forces are trying to steal Raqqa, warns minister

The Syrian government does not consider any city or land as liberated until the Syrian Arab army forces enter it and raise the national flag over its buildings, Syria’s information minister, Mohammad Ramez Tardjaman, said citing the Kurdish forces’ control over the Raqqa city.

“We do not consider any city liberated until the Syrian Arab army enters it and lifts the Syrian flag over it. This applies to any point of the Syrian map,” Tardjaman told Russia’s Sputnik.

He added that Damascus regards the withdrawal of Daesh from Raqqa as a “positive event,” stressing that it still requires the Syrian troops to enter into the city for it to be fully liberated “regardless of whether Daesh is there or some other faction or organisation”.

Despite the various proposals by Saudi Arabia and the US to reconstruct the city, Tardjaman warned, “it won’t get approved by the Syrian government.”

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On the Idlib, the Syrian minister pointed out that Syria considers the entry of the Turkish military into the city and the US military’s presence in Al-Tanf city as an “aggression violating Syria’s sovereignty and UN resolutions,” stressing “the country has the right to respond.”

On 20 October, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured Raqqa after it had been controlled by Daesh for four years. The SDF operation,backed by the US, to liberate the city from the Daesh self-proclaimed caliphate was launched in early June. US President Donald Trump called the SDF victory in the region a “critical breakthrough” and said that a “transition into a new phase” would start soon.