Red Lines, Military Strikes: Media Coverage of Syrian War – The Listening Post

Syria President Bashar Al-Assad Says British Air Strikes Will Fail and Mocks David Cameron ‘Farce’

Mr Assad poured scorn on the PM's assertion that 70,000
moderate rebels could defeat Isis

THE INDEPENDENT: Mr Assad says RAF air strikes were illegal and detrimental to anti-terror operations being undertaken by his regime

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has claimed British bombing raids against Isis targets in his country will fail – and ridiculed Cameron’s Middle East policy as a “classical farce”.

In an interview with the Sunday Times within his Damascus compound, Mr Assad said the RAF air strikes were illegal and detrimental to anti-terror operations being undertaken by his regime.

He said: “You cannot defeat them [Isis] through air strikes alone. You cannot defeat them without co-operation with forces on the ground.

“You cannot defeat them if you do not have buy-in from the general public and the government …They are going to fail again.”

It comes after MPs gave their backing to British air strikes in Syria, with the oil fields operated by militant group Isis targeted.

Mr Assad went on to praise his Russian allies, who he said entered the Syrian conflict “the legal way”.

“The Russians can see this clearly, they want to protect Syria, Iraq, the region — and even Europe,” he said.

“I am not exaggerating by saying they are protecting Europe today.” » | Matt Payton | Sunday, December 6, 2015

UK Air Strikes against ISIL in Syria Will Fuel the Rise of Terror, Says Bashar al-Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad giving an interview to a
British journalist in his Damascus residence

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Europe is the incubator of terror and not Syria, the president says in Damascus, as he claims the West is to blame for thousands of dead Syrians

The UK's bombing campaign against Isil fighters in Syria is "illegal" and will only cause the “cancer” of terrorism" to spread, Bashar al-Assad has said in an interview published on Sunday.

The Syrian president mocked Britain’s decision to launch air strikes, blaming the West for the rise of the terror group, as well as for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians.

Speaking from the tranquil surroundings of his Damascene palace, shielded from the distant thuds of war in the suburbs, Assad said the UK's actions would "support terrorism".

“It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism, as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so [ago] because this is like a cancer,” Assad said. » | Louisa Loveluck | Sunday, December 6, 2015

Cameron Accuses Corbyn of Being 'Terrorist Sympathiser'

THE GUARDIAN: Prime minister urges Tory MPs not to vote with Labour leader and ‘a bunch of terrorist sympathisers’ against Syria airstrikes

David Cameron has appealed to Conservative MPs to give him an overall parliamentary majority in favour of military action in Syria by warning them against voting alongside “Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers”.

Amid Downing Street concerns that support among backbench Labour MPs is weakening, the prime minister told a meeting of the 1922 committee that he needed to win the vote solely on the basis of Tory MPs’ support to achieve his goal of securing a clear consensus.

“You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers,” the prime minister reportedly told the committee. » | Nicholas Watt, Chief political correspondent |Tuesday, December 1, 2015