Assad Says Failure of Russian-led Alliance would 'Destroy' Whole Region
Syrian President Bashar Assad said in comments broadcast on Sunday that the success of Russia's military intervention in his country's civil war was vital for the whole Middle East.
"The alliance between Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran must succeed or else the whole region will be destroyed," he said in an interview broadcast by Iranian state television.
Russia on Wednesday launched air strikes in Syria in a move Moscow insists is aimed at fighting the Islamic State group.
But opponents including the United States claim Russian bombing raids are mainly targeting Western-backed moderate opponents of Assad.
"The chances of success for this coalition are great and not insignificant," Assad said in his interview, according to an extract posted on Twitter, warning that the price Syria's allies pay "will certainly be high."
He called on Western countries, which along with Gulf allies have carried out air strikes on IS in Syria since September 2014, to join forces to fight extremism.
"If these states join the fight against terrorists in a serious and sincere manner, at least in terms of stopping to support them, we will achieve results much faster," Assad said.
Western and Gulf countries insist Assad must step down after presiding over more than four years of civil war.
But a defiant Assad on Sunday again dismissed calls for him to step aside.
"If the solution was me stepping down I would not hesitate," he said.
IS seized large swathes of Syria in 2014 and has even managed to gain ground in the face of coalition air strikes, seizing the U.N.-listed heritage site of Palmyra in May.
Assad said a year of U.S.-led strikes had failed to stem the rise of IS.
"I haven't seen results. I even see results that are contrary (to the coalition's aim). Terrorism has seen a geographic expansion and the number of recruits to terrorist groups has increased," he said.
Syria's war has helped prompt a migrant crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of people flee to Europe this year.
Assad said the war was "a black page in Syria's history" but insisted EU nations needed to take responsibility for the migrant influx because of the bloc's support for rebel groups.
Syria's civil war began with peaceful protests in 2011 but has since descended into a multi-front conflict, with regime forces, jihadists, moderate rebels and Kurdish fighters all vying for control.
More than 240,000 people have been killed and more than four million forced to flee the country.
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