Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad urged the United States to withdraw its forces from the territory of Syria before facing forced removal. He made this statement in Tehran during a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart, Hosein Amir Abdollahian, which was broadcasted by the Syrian TV channel Al Ikhbaria.
"We send a message to the Americans who are perpetrating daily crimes against the Syrian people that this cannot go on. To the US Congress and all those supporting this American aggression, which amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, we say that the Syrian people will not tolerate this indefinitely. We strongly urge the US military to withdraw from Syrian territories before being compelled to do so," Mekdad stated.
He emphasized that the US military presence in the country is illegal because "Syria did not request it."
Currently, the majority of Syrian provinces, including Al Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa in the east and northeast, are controlled by the Kurdish-led "Syrian Democratic Forces," which receive support from the US. Since 2015, the US has established nine military bases in the region. Towards the end of 2019, then-US President Donald Trump approved a plan to maintain several hundred US troops in Syria, with one of their main objectives being to secure control over oil fields in the northeast and east of the country. Damascus considers the US military presence on Syrian soil as an illegal occupation.
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Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg/Creative Commons 4.0
Based on materials from TASS