Assad Seeks Agreement on US Airstrikes in Syria

Says There Should Be Formal Coordination on ISIS War

Speaking in an interview with Foreign Affairs Magazine, Syrian President Bashar Assad said he thinks the US airstrikes in Syria should be governed by some sort of formal agreement between the two nations.

Though the US nominally seeks regime change, the US airstrikes against ISIS and other rebels have been hugely beneficial to the Assad government, and have allowed them to retake some territory in recent months.

Assad said that his government was ready to cooperate with the US on terrorism, and to coordinate so that Syrian troops could be involved on the ground as US airstrikes hit ISIS.

Despite being on the same side in the war, the US doesn’t want to officially cooperate with the Assad government, and has instead chosen to use intermediaries to ferry messages back and forth.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.